Possessive Nouns
Indicating possession
Possessives for common nouns
| SINGULAR |
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| SINGULAR COMMON NOUN |
Our school's soccer team won several games. |
The state's soccer team won several games. |
The country's soccer team won several games. |
| SINGULAR COMMON NOUNS FOLLOWED BY -S |
The class's soccer team (MLA 3.2.7e) (CMOS 7.18) |
The class's teamnot followed by a word starting with s (AP 323) |
BUT: The class' soccer team followed by a word starting with s (AP 323) |
| OTHER |
A day's journey / a twenty minutes's delay. |
Today's news / tomorrow's weather / Sunday's newspaper days and time |
A pound's worth of peanuts / a dollar's worth of gas a quantify worth |
My daughter-in-law's profession in-law expressions (CMOS 7.25) |
1968's music was great. a specific year |
| EXCEPT: NOUNS PLURAL IN FORM BUT SINGULAR IN MEANING |
Economics' contribution / Mathematics' rules |
Linguistics' explanation |
The series' first game |
for righteousness'/Jesus'/ goodness' sake |
After a singular noun add an | PLURAL |
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| SINGULAR COMMON PLURAL NOUN |
The schools' soccer teams won several games. |
The states' soccer teams won several games. |
The countries' soccer teams won several games. |
| PLURAL COMMON NOUNS FOLLOWED BY -S |
The classes' soccer teams |
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| EXCEPT: NOUNS SINGULAR IN FORM BUT PLURAL IN MEANING |
The children's / men's / women's soccer team |
The people's vote |
The sheep's / deer's / moose's / oxen's eyes |
The alumni's contributions |
After a plural personal noun add an Also see Apostrophes.
Possessives
Proper Nouns
Possessive markers for proper nouns
| SINGULAR |
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|
Jason's ball went over the fence. |
Charles's ball went over the fence. (MLA 3.2.7e) (CMOS 7.18) |
Charles' ball went over the fence. (AP 323) |
James's hat blew away. (MLA 3.2.7e) (CMOS 7.18) |
James' hat blew away. (AP 323) |
| OTHER |
Coach Burns's soccer team won several games. two-word nouns) |
Andy and Manuel's team is staying late for practice. double nouns |
FDR's policies / JFK's assassination initials |
Yahoo!'s chief executive officer keyboard symbols |
| PLURAL |
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The Wagners' house (sing. – Wagner; pl. Wagners) |
The Burnses' field (sing. – Burns; pl. Burnses) |
The Martinezes' yard (sing. – Martinez; pl. Martinezes) |
The Marxes' daughter |
The Hawaiian Islands' soccer teams |
| EXCEPT: SINGULAR: ORGANIZATIONS, GROUPS, UNIONS |
The United States' soccer team (CMOS 7.19) |
The Boy Scouts' soccer team |
The National Academy of Sciences' new building |
The Red Fox Hills' neighborhood soccer team |
A proper noun is a name for a person, organization, group or country.
For more detail, see Apostrophes.
Possessive Nouns
Inanimate – "Things"
Possessive Forms for Things
| APOSTROPHE + S |
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Using the apostrophe + s form for "things" is informal. |
The goalpost's leg was broken. |
I dropped my keys at the bed's foot. (awkward sounding) |
My my brother's best-friend's soccer team won. (confusing) |
The wet, slippery field's grass prevented us from playing. (awkward sounding) |
| THE X OF __ |
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Using of for "things" is more acceptable in academic and business English. Of is also used to clarify meaning. See examples below. |
The leg of the goal post was broken. |
I dropped my keys at the foot of the bed. (maintain an expression) |
The soccer team of my brother's best-friend won. (simplify a series of possessives) |
The wet, slippery grass of the field prevented us from playing. (improve modifier placement) |
Also see Apostrophes the X of and / The-Countries / The-Landmarks
Possessives
Days and Holidays
Possessives for Days & Holidays
| SINGULAR |
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The apostrophe is placed before the S in singular-noun holidays. |
Today's date is December 31. |
This year's movies were excellent. |
We are going out on New Year's Eve. |
More chocolate is sold on Valentine's Day than any other day. |
I'll send a card to my mother on Mother's Day. |
The kids make breakfast for their father on Father's Day. |
Everyone wears green on Saint Patrick's Day. |
| PLURAL |
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The apostrophe is placed after S in plural-noun holidays. |
I was paid well for thirty days' work. |
The last few years' best movies have all used CGI. (computer generated images) |
We play jokes on people on April Fools' Day. |
All Saints' Day is celebrated on November 1. |
* Veterans Day is the day we honor those who have fought in past wars. |
* Presidents Day is the day we honor those who have fought in past wars. |
*Neither Veterans Day nor Presidents Day occurs with an apostrophe. |
Mother's Day and Father's Day are creations of Anne Jarvis who chose to make the noun form singular so that each mother or father would be specially honored.
CGI (n.) - an acronym meaning computer generated images
Possessives
Numbers and Letters
Singular v. Plural Numbers and Letters
| SINGULAR |
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An apostrophe is placed after a singualr number, letter or keyboard character. |
As I remember, 1964's earthquake was relatively small. (in the year1964) |
JFK's assassination was shocking. (President John Fitzgerald Kennedy) |
Yahoo!'s chief executive is making an announcement. |
| PLURAL |
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The apostrophe is placed after S in plural-noun holidays. |
The 1960s' music was influenced by the Beatles. (in the decade 1960) |
The initial IPOs' values were higher than now. (initial public offerings of stock) |
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Grammar Notes
Traditional Grammar and Linguistic Description
Advanced
CMOS, MLA & APA
The traditional rule, as found in the Chicago Manual of Style, MLA Handbook and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association:
A singular noun, common and proper, ending in s forms the possessive by adding 's: house/house's, boss/boss's, Davis/Davis's, Charles/Charles's. This adds an additional syllable to the original word: /ɪs/ or /ɪz/, depending upon the previous consonant. Exceptions to this rule are ancient names: Jesus', Moses', Socrates', Euripides'.
Plural nouns ending in s form the possessive by adding an apostrophe: parents' love, friends' support, the Williamses' house Joneses' car. Exceptions to the rule are plural nouns with irregular forms: children's toys, women's fashions.
AP Stylebook
A more modern approach can be found in the AP Stylebook, which specifies the guidelines for newspapers:
Singular common nouns ending in s: add 's unless the next word begins with s: the hostess's invitation, the hostess' seat; the witness's answer; the witness' story.
Singular proper nouns ending in s: add an apostrophe: Williams' plays, Dickens' novels, Hercules' labors, Jesus' life (but not St. James's Palace).
Plural nouns ending in s add only an apostrophe: the girls' toys, the horses' tail, the states' rights, the boss' office.
Resources
AP Stylebook. The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law. 42nd ed. New York: Basic Books, 2007. Print. (p. 192-194, 323)
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America. 2009. Print. (3.2.7)
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th ed. Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association, 2010. Print. (4.12)
University of Chicago Press. The Chicago Manual of Style. 15th edition.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Print. (7.18-26)
Practice 1
Possessives
- Select the response from the list that best completes the sentence.
- Compare your response to the answer by clicking the "check" button.