All About Possessives

Singular Possessive Nouns

The possessive case is chiefly used of:

people;

countries;

animals.

Possessive Case Worksheet

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

1. Everybody slapped everybody else's back… (Dickens)
2.  Jim's gold watch used to be his father's and his grandfather's. (O.Henry)
3. …it was New Year's Eve. (Andersen)
4. We lost so much money merely for amusement's sake.
5. Theory of Chances is the philosopher's stone of all gamblers!
6. Mars’ air pressure is equal to Earth’s at an altitude of 100,000 feet.
7. Increasing the length of the school day will give pupils'a better perspectives. ’
8. In the suburbs only 200 of the Milky Way’s 2,500 stars are visible on a clear night.
9. The studio of Abbey Road is famous for the majority ofThe Beatles’ recordings in the 1960s.
10. Film lovers will enjoy the Barbican Centre's three cinemas.
11. Atpater’s death, his name, property, and authority descended to his male heirs.
12. Gainsborough’s private inclination was for landscape and rustic scenes.
13. What started some 33 years ago in Robin Klassnik's studio has developed into an exemplary model.
14. Freedman's skillful re-prints now hang on the walls of Eleven Spital fields.
15. With WWI's arrival two years later, these lives probably became blurred indeed, or were rubbed out entirely.

Possessive Case Worksheet