Possessive Nouns

A possessive noun is used to show

• possession and/or ownership
  
  e.g., John owns a car.
  To show that "John" is the owner of the car, we say, "It is John's car."
  
  
• "belonging to" e.g., the dog's master
  
  
• relationship e.g., John's mother
  
  

Basic rules for forming possessive nouns Ask the following questions: Which noun is the owner? Is this noun singular or plural? In other words, is there more than one owner?
To form the possessive of:	Add the following to the owner or owners	Examples
ONE OWNER a singular noun	's	• the bee's sting • John's sister • his boss's temper
TWO OR MORE OWNERS a plural noun ending in s	'	• the girls' clothes • the boys' bicycles
TWO OR MORE OWNERS a plural noun not ending in s	's	• the children's toys • the geese's feathers

For non-living things, use the following pattern:

something + "of the" + owner

• the branches of the tree
• the leg of the table

The apostrophe is also used in expressions of time and measurement.

• a day's work
• two dollars' worth of
• a month's pay
• in a year's time
• two years' experience

Possessive Nouns Quiz

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