The English Corner at Richland College
Possessives
The possessive case shows ownership or possession of a person or thing by another. For nouns
and indefinite pronouns, possession can be shown with “of” (the eyes of the cat, the ending of
the book, the laptop of Charles, the notebook of someone). One can also use ’s instead of of to
show possession (cat’s eyes, book’s ending, Charles’s laptop, someone’s notebook).
Most pronouns do not use ‘s to show possession: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs, and
whose. When a pronoun has ‘s at the end, it is not possessive but a contraction of the pronoun
and a verb, usually the words is, has, or are: it’s = it is or it has; you’re = you are.
Singular Nouns and Indefinite Pronouns
Add an ’s to singular nouns and indefinite pronouns.
Example: dog’s tail
Example: everyone’s duty
Singular nouns that end in s
Add an ’s to singular nouns that end in s.
Example: Charles’s laptop
Example: James’s candy
Plural Nouns
Add an ’s to plural nouns that do not end in s.
Example: women’s rights
Example: children’s clothes
Plurals nouns that end in s
Do not add ’s to plural nouns that end in s. To show possession, only use an apostrophe.
Example: students’ books
Example: dancers’ recital
Individual and Joint Possession
Add an ’s to one or both words depending on the meaning.
Example of Individual Possession: Ellen’s and Justine’s writing styles are completely
different. (Each writer has her own style.)
Example of Joint Possession: The dancers and musicians’ tempo was timed perfectly to
the beat. (The dancers and the musicians performed jointly to the beat.)
Handout created by Ellen Cardona
www.richlandcollege.edu/englishcorner