The Possessive Noun

Writers who use unnecessary apostrophes or who omit necessary ones should remember that the apostrophe has two uses:

Use An Apostrophe:  

  1. to indicate an omitted letter in a contraction (do not = don’t, I will = I’ll, etc.)
  2. to indicate that a noun is possessive.

It is important, then, to remember where apostrophes should not be used.

Do Not Use An Apostrophe:

  1. to form the plural of a noun.
  2. with any verb to which an s ending is added.
  3. to form the possessive of any pronoun, such as it.  An exception is the indefinite pronoun  (i. e. everyone, anyone, everybody, one, etc.) Everyone’s thoughts were on the big game.

The rule for use of the apostrophe with an added s can be stated as a series of questions, which follow below.  A “no” answer to any point before the last question means that the answer to the last question is “no.”

Rules for Possessive Apostrophes

1.     Is the word to which s has been added either a noun or an indefinite pronoun?

2.     Is the word possessive?

3.   Do I need an apostrophe?

Rules for Determining Whether Nouns/Pronouns Are Possessive

  1. Indefinite Pronouns:  Since we never form the plural of these words, the only reason we would ever add an s to these words would be to make them possessive.  Thus, you will always need an apostrophe before the s when you add an s to words like everyone or nobody.

Can you believe everyone’s shirt was blue?

  1. Nouns:  Watch for two nouns together.  Check the first to see if it is possessive by substituting a possessive pronoun for it.

The victims’ families suffered greatly.

Their families suffered greatly.

Look for clues that the noun to which you have added an s is singular.  Determiners like a and this will always tell you that the noun is singular; thus, the only reason you would have added the s would be to show possession, but you may save time by eliminating further tests for singular nouns.

A ball’s bounce is determined by elasticity.

 

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This page last updated on 4/02/2003