Nouns: Possessive

A noun can belong to someone or something. In other words, it’s the possession of that other person.

To show this relation, use the possessive form.

Place an -’s (apostrophe s) after the noun.
If the noun already ends with an s-like sound, use -’ (only the apostrophe)
Now place the thing it possesses after it.

Example

John’s car 🚗, a cow’s legs 🐄, France’s army 🎖️, women’s clothes 👚

Example

Jess’ smartphone 📱, the girls’ room, my parents’ upbringing

The special rule, again, prevents many “sss” sounds after each other. But it’s not required!

The single apostrophe can easily be missed (by the reader). It’s totally valid to use the first rule on everything (with only a few exceptions).

Try to speak the word and see if you say two esses or only one. Spell the word based on what sounds best.

Example

John owns this car. It is John’s car.
The cat has fur. It is the cat’s fur.
The waitress had long hair. The waitress’s hair was long.

Remark

Hopefully you see a pattern. English has many special rules to prevent doubling of sounds, which makes the language quite easy to speak for anyone. I, for example, shouldn’t try speaking French, because those sounds are just so uncomfortable to me.

Later in the course, you will learn Possessive pronouns. Like: “He grabbed his bag.” These were designed for showing possession, so they ignore all the rules above.

Continue with this course