English Possessive

Possessives are most often used to show that somebody owns something – in other words, that something belongs to someone.

Sarah’s dog (the dog belongs to Sarah)

My backpack (the backpack belongs to me)

The car is hers. (the car belongs to her)

Possessive can also show relationships:

Alex’s brother (the brother of Alex)

Sammy’s mom (the mom of Sammy)

our cousin

You can tell that something is a possessive if you can rewrite it in one of these two ways:

• [object] belongs to [subject]

For example: Mark’s house → the house belongs to Mark

• [object] of [subject] 

For example: my sister’s friend →  the friend of my sister

Possessive Nouns

Possessive nouns are formed either by adding an apostrophe + s to the end of the noun, or, for some nouns that end in -s, just an apostrophe.

Singular Possessive Nouns

For most singular nouns, add ’s:

Kyle’s homework

Liz’s party

the cat’s food

For singular nouns ending in -s, we usually add ’s as well:

James’s class

Jess’s ring

the boss’s desk

Plural Possessive Nouns

Most plural nouns end in -s already, so we simply add an apostrophe to show that the noun is now a possessive:

the students’ desks (the desk belongs to more than one student)

the teachers’ room (the room belongs to more than one teacher)

the dogs’ toys (the toys belong to more than one dog)

For irregular plural nouns (those that don’t end in -s), we again add ’s:

the children’s books

the people’s library

the women’s bathroom

Here is each type of possessive noun in a sentence:

I don’t know what New York City’s weather is like.

Have you seen Carlos’s hat?

All the buses’ doors are green.

The men’s soccer team just won their game.

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives are also called possessive determiners. They appear in front of the nouns they modify, just like regular adjectives.

Possessive Pronouns

Like normal pronouns, possessive pronouns stand alone and replace nouns.