REVIEW CLASS Apostrophes and Possessive Nouns
REVIEW CLASS Apostrophes and Possessive Nouns
REVIEW CLASS Apostrophes and Possessive Nouns
The dogs’ leashes (multiple dogs) The writers’ desks (multiple writers)
The planets’atmospheres (multiple planets)
Style guides vary in their recommendations of what to do when you have a singular
proper noun that ends in s. Some recommend adding only an apostrophe:
Others say to add apostrophe+s: Charles Dickens’s novels Kansas’s main airport
No matter which style guide you use, add only the apostrophe to plural proper nouns
that end in s:
Use whichever style matches the style guide you use for your writing. If you don’t
have a style guide, it’s OK to just pick one of the methods, as long as you don’t switch
back and forth within the same document.
What do you do with the apostrophe when you’re talking about things that belong to
more than one person? When one thing belongs to two or more people, make only the
final name possessive:
Bob and Jim’s bait shop (Bob and Jim co-own the same bait shop) Ryan, Jessica,
and Elinor’s parents (All three share the same parents)
POSSESSIVE: APOSTROPHE ‘S - HAVE / HAS – P.A. and P.P.
I.E.P. “SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS”
REVIEW CLASS 14/06/2018 – Teacher: Enrique Flores.
When you’re talking about separate things that belong to different people, make all
the names possessive:
Bob’s and Jim’s bait shops (Bob owns one bait shop and Jim owns a different
one) Ryan’s, Jessica’s, and Elinor’s parents (Each has a different set of parents)
Using possessive personal pronouns in joint constructions often sounds awkward (You
have their and my gratitude). Usually, the best solution is to rephrase the sentence
to avoid the joint construction (You have our gratitude or You have their gratitude
and mine).
Personal pronouns, unlike regular nouns, do not use apostrophes to form possessives.
Most writers don’t have trouble with the possessive pronouns my, mine, his,
her, and our. It’s your, yours, hers, its, ours, their, and theirs, that tend to cause the
confusion. The relative possessive pronoun whose is also frequently the victim of
apostrophe abuse. Note that none of these forms uses an apostrophe. In fact, for
some of these pronouns, adding an apostrophe forms a contraction instead of a
possessive (see the table above).
Exercises:
1. The mother cat and __________ kittens napped in the sunshine. (his /your/hers/her).
2. I like cream cheese on _________ bagels. (my/mine/your/our)
3. ________ grandfather used to take us fishing. (My/Mine/Our/Ours)
4. Elaine bought ________ dress at the mall. (Yours/Mine/Hers/Her)
5. The car lost _________ rear bumper in an accident. (It’s/Its/His/Her)
6. This dessert is ___________ but you can have it. (My/Mine/Yours/Delicous)
7. Please return _________ money at once. (mine/your/my/Its)
8. ______ car is so dirty I can’t even tell what color it is. (Your/Yours/Hers/Ours)
9. When the cat saw the dog, it stopped in ______ tracks. (my/Its/his/hers)