All About Possessives
Singular Possessive Nouns
The possessive case is chiefly used of:
people;
countries;
animals.
It can also be used of ships and boats:
- the ship's bell;
- the yacht's mast;
of planes, trains, cars and other vehicles, though here the of construction is safer:
- a glider's wings or the wings of a glider;
- the tram's heating system or the heating system of the train.
's is used with singular noun
- the politician's daughter
- America's intervention
- Shakespeare's plays
- apple’s taste
- book’s cover
- boss’s car
- cat’s tuna
- computer’s keyboard
- deer’s antlers
- diabetes’s symptoms
- Florida’s climate
- goddess’s beauty
- gym’s rules
- house’s roof
- jam’s ingredient
- laundry’s smell
- lawyer’s fee
- marble’s shape
- month’s work
- today’s newspaper
- tree’s bark
- watermelon’s rind
- for amusement's sake
- philosopher's stone
- a man's job
- he crew's quarters
- a woman's intuition
- the horse's mouth
- the bull's horns
- a child's voice
- Britain’s exports
's is used with plural nouns not ending in s
- the people's choice
- men's work
- women's clothes
- the children's room
- cattle’s pasture
- geese’s eggs
- mice’s traps
- feet’s toenails
- nuclei’s form
- cacti’s thorns
- octopi’s legs
- die’s roll
- lice’s size
- hippopotami’s power
- fungi’s location
- formulae’s indication
Plural Possessive Nouns
s’ is used with plural nouns ending in s
- Americans’ ideals
- babies’ shoes
- cabbages’ nutrition
- donors’ cards
- eggs’ color
- frogs’ croaking
- garages’ fees
- igloos’ construction
- inventions’ popularity
- juices’ flavors
- lemons’ acidity
- members’ votes
- nuts’ saltiness
- owls’ eyes
- planets’ orbits
- quizzes’ difficulty
- students’ grades
- suspects’ fingerprints
- the Smiths’ house
Classical names ending in s usually add only the apostrophe
- Pythagoras’ Theorem
- Archimedes’ Law
- Sophocles’ plays
- Mars’air pressure
Other names ending in s can take 's or the apostrophe alone
- Mr Janes's (or Mr Jones' house)
- Yeats's (or Yeats') poems
With compound or hyphenated nouns, the last word takes the ’s
- my brother-in-law's guitar
- Henry the Eighth's wives
- the Prince of Wales's helicopter ’s
- the PM's secretary
- the MP's briefcase
- the VIP's escort Note that when
- my sister-in-law’s advice
- Notre Dame’s tower
- Yellowstone National Park’s hours
- middle class’s income
- T-shirt’s logo
- Attorney General’s job
- real estate’s decline
- full moon’s brightness
- mid-June’s heat
- front-runner’s confidence
With compound or hyphenated plural nouns, the last word takes the s’
- water-bottles’ shape
- changing-rooms’ door
- five-year-olds’ excitement
- six packs’ appeal
- step-sisters’ bedrooms
- post Offices’ hours
- ex-wives’ alimony
- bus stops’ repair
- oil spills’ costs
- U-boats’ stealth
- time expressions’ possessives
- a week's holiday
- today's paper
- tomorrow's weather
- in two years' time
- ten minutes' break
- two hours' delay
or
- a ten-minute break
- a two-hour delay
- Pronouns’ possessives
- one - one’s
- another - another’s
- anybody - anybody’s
- each other - each other’s
- each one - each one’s
- nobody - nobody’s
- no one - no one’s
- someone - someone’s
- somebody - somebody’s
- something - something’s
- somebody else - somebody else’s
- someone else's
Possessive Nouns Referring to Places, Churches and Universities
- Saint Anthony’s
- The grocer’s
- The dentist’s
- Saint Mary’s
- The vet’s
- The chiropractor’s
- Domino’s
- McDonald’s
- Frankie’s
- Dillard’s
- Macy’s
- a/the baker’s
- butcher’s
- chemist’s
- florist's
- a/the house agent’s
- ravel agent's
- he dentist ’s
- doctor ’s
- vet 's
- We had lunch at Bill's
- We met at Ann’s
Possessive Nouns Joined Together with and
- Hansel and Gretel’s adventure
- Sonny and Cher’s fame
- Salt and pepper’s flavors
- Man and wife’s vows
- Jupiter and Saturn’s atmospheres
- Birds and bees’ habits
- Additives and spices’ costs
but
- mother’s and father’s laptops (each has their own laptop)
More examples
- Everybody slapped everybody else's back… (Dickens)
- Jim's gold watch used to be his father's and his grandfather's. (O.Henry)
- …it was New Year's Eve. (Andersen)
- We lost so much money merely for amusement's sake.
- Theory of Chances is the philosopher's stone of all gamblers!
- Mars’ air pressure is equal to Earth’s at an altitude of 100,000 feet.
- Increasing the length of the school day will give pupils'a better perspectives. ’
- In the suburbs only 200 of the Milky Way’s 2,500 stars are visible on a clear night.
- The studio of Abbey Road is famous for the majority ofThe Beatles’ recordings in the 1960s.
- Film lovers will enjoy the Barbican Centre's three cinemas.
- Atpater’s death, his name, property, and authority descended to his male heirs.
- Gainsborough’s private inclination was for landscape and rustic scenes.
- What started some 33 years ago in Robin Klassnik's studio has developed into an exemplary model.
- Freedman's skillful re-prints now hang on the walls of Eleven Spital fields.
- With WWI's arrival two years later, these lives probably became blurred indeed, or were rubbed out entirely.