Possessives

If you want to say that something belongs to somebody or something, you would:

1.    Add an ‘s to a singular noun and
2.    An apostrophe (‘) to a plural noun ending with an ‘s.’

Examples:
The girl’s doll (one girl)
The girls’ doll (two or more girls)

Note: The number of dolls does not matter. In this case, it’s the possessor (the girl/girls) who counts.

How can this grammatical structure be used in a phrase or sentence?

Here are two examples:

-  The British captain’s wife (the wife of the British captain)
- The President of France’s cars (the cars of the President of France)

How can you use the possessive (‘s) with proper nouns, such as names?

A few more examples for you to take a look at:

- This is Andrew’s bedroom.
- Where is Luciano’s motorbike?
- Does anyone know who took Daniel’s diary?
- I love Sharon’s smile.

If the name happens to ends in ‘s’, you can still add ‘s:

- Charles’s father is only 53 years old!

However, some older names would just take an apostrophe (‘)

- Who were Jesus’ disciples?

When it comes to irregular plural forms which do not take an ‘s’ (man – men, child – children), you would need to add an apostrophe (‘) + s to the plural form of these nouns:

- My child’s toys – my children’s toys
- The woman’s job – the women’s job
- A person’s rights  -  the people’s rights

Lesson by Krista

• 1. The girl next ___ three cats ran away last night!
  
  doors'
  door's
  doors
  
  
• 2. Have you seen ___ parents lately?
  
  Mark's
  Mark
  Marks'
  
  
• 3. All the ___ football kits are torn and dirty.
  
  boys
  boys'
  boy's
  
  
• 4. The ___ truck also caught fire. Thankfully none of them were injured!
  
  firefighters
  firefighters'
  firefighter's
  
  
• 5. Claire and ___ house is always clean and tidy.
  
  Tom
  Toms'
  Tom's
  
  
• 6. The nanny always makes sure the ___ toys and games are in the box.
  
  childrens'
  children's
  childrens
  
  
• 7. ___ clothes usually tend to be fancier than men’s.
  
  Womens
  Women's
  Womens'
  
  
• 8. The Queen of ___ dogs are all very well-trained and obedient.
  
  England
  England's
  Englands'