Grammar: Feeling Possessive?

Posted January 11, 2015 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Grammar Explanations, Self-Editing, Writing

Revised as of
14 Feb 2023

I can understand how the different rules for the apostrophe “s” can get confusing. I generally find myself pausing to examine the context to ensure I’m using the correct ‘s or s’s or pronoun.

‘s is Never Plural

Plural versus Possessive

Too often a writer uses an ‘s when the word is clearly intended to be plural. I must confess this whole issue is mind boggling. And the number of times I encounter the conflict within the novels I read scares me to death.

A plural word indicates “many”, more than one of that word. A horse is one, horses are more than one or plural. A possessive word means that the word owns something, usually whatever word that follows the possessive. A horse’s ass indicates, in the literal sense, that the ass belongs to the horse. It’s the apostrophe that indicates the word is possessing that object. Yes an ‘s can also be a contraction of horse is or horse has, he has or she is, etc., but we’re talking here about plural versus mine/yours/his/theirs, etc.

That said, there are singular and plural possessives. The apostrophe is placed at the end of the actual word, in other words, if one parent has a car, you would write parent’s car. If you are writing about the car of more than one parent, it becomes parents’ car.

Two Sides of an ‘s

There are two schools of thought on how to properly punctuate/spell a word that ends in an s whether it’s a singular or plural word. One side believes that if a word ends in an s, you don’t need to follow it up with a second s, i.e., Ellis’ car or his parents’ car. The other side believes that the secondary s is still necessary, i.e., Ellis’s car or her parents’s car.

Both are correct. The only real requirement is that whichever you choose, be consistent.

The General Rule

Singular Possessive

The apostrophe in a singular possessive is always followed by an s. Within arm’s length, Mary’s ball, Ted’s hammer.

Plural Possessive

If a word is plural, i.e., planes, trains, or automobiles, follow it with either just the apostrophe or an ‘s (see Two Sides of an ‘s above.)

The exceptions — aren’t there always! — are plural words that do not end in an s, then you must include one after the apostrophe, i.e., oxen’s yoke, women’s rights, children’s toys, etc.

No, there is absolutely nothing that says a writer must have excellent grammar, spelling, or punctuation skills. However, please recognize when you don’t. Get an editor, a copyeditor, or a proofreader. And I am not talking about running a spell- or grammar-check as these will not catch everything. The context may not clue in the software that the grammar is wrong. Spell-check simply indicates that the word is spelled correctly. It does not tell you if the proper word is being used in that particular phrasing.

Please be leery of services that use software to run grammar- and spell-checks. They are only slightly better than a program’s efforts and are still subject to context-abuse.

Grammar Explanations is . . .

. . . an evolving list of the structural rules and principles that determines where words are placed in phrases or sentences as well as how the language is spoken. Sometimes I run across an example that helps explain better or another “also known as”. Heck, there’s always a better way to explain it, so if it makes quicker and/or better sense, I would appreciate suggestions and comments from anyone on an area of grammar with which you struggle or on which you can contribute more understanding.

If you found this post on “Feeling Possessive?” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.

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Possessive

Definition: Relating to a word or a form of a word that shows that something or someone belongs to something or someone else.

Rule: Ownership or possession is usually shown by the use of an apostrophe “s” (‘s)

POST CONTENTS

Singular Possessive
Plural Possessive
Already Possessive Words

Possessives are:

Singular Possessive

Rule: Use ‘s

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If one parent has a car, you would write parent’s car

Rule: Show joint ownership

The Sentence(s)	The Explanation
Nan and Ted’s dog.	Nan and Ted own the same dog.

Rule: Show individual ownership

The Sentence(s)	The Explanation
Nan’s and Ted’s dogs.	Nan and Ted each own a different dog.

Rule: Show ownership with indefinite pronouns

anybody’s hats
everybody’s hats
each’s hats

Rule: The of χ Question

Credit to: Lakin

The Sentence(s)	The Explanation
A portrait of King Henry	Yes, that is a picture of King Henry although it’s not a very good likeness.
A portrait of King Henry’s	Yes, that picture belongs to King Henry.

Taking it into a more confusing arena . . .

Are you a friend of John’s?	Is he a friend of yours, OR John’s friend, OR He’s a friend of yours.
Are you a friend of John?	“Is he a friend of you” doesn’t sound quite right.

Plural Possessive

Rule: There are two ways to indicate plural possession . . . whichever you choose, be consistent.

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Option 1:	Option 2:
Rule: Follow the plural word with an apostrophe and an “s”, ‘s	Rule: Skip the extra “s” after the apostrophe
friends’s	parents’
families’s	families’
Rule: Plural words that do not end in an “s” are treated like singular words — add an ‘s
oxen’s yoke women’s rights children’s toys
Rule: Then there are the words which already end in “s” but are singular or someone’s name. Treat them as you have already been using the ‘s.
Option 1:	Option 2:
Do keep in mind how the word will sound with all those esses . . . all snaky . . .
Rule: Use ‘s after everything	Rule: Use ‘ (apostrophe) alone at the end of words or names already ending in “s”.
the Millers’s dog	the Millers’ dog
Maris’s cat	Maris’ cat
Jonas’s coffee	Jonas’ coffee
the Joneses’s car	the Joneses’ car
parents’s car	parents’ car

Already Possessive Words Rule: Possessive pronouns indicate a sense of belonging to something else.

Subjective and objective pronouns are not possessive.

Possessive	Subjective	Objective
my, mine	I	me
your, yours	you	you
his, her, hers, its	he, she, it	him, her, it
our, ours	we	us
their, theirs	they	them
whose	who, whoever	whom, whoever
one’s		one

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Grammar Explanations by exploring its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Word Confusions, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.