Possessives - English Grammar Worksheet

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Possessives
Explanation
…connections…
To show ownership of things, people or concepts, we use
For additional apostrophe-related
possessives. The possessive form looks like this:
material, see Contractions
• The dog belonging to the boy shed hair on the floor.
• The talent of the singer is apparent after seeing her
show.
But a simpler, more common and concise way, is to change the noun that does the possessing:
• The boy’s dog shed hair on the floor.
• The singer’s talent is apparent after seeing her show.
With a few exceptions, the following two rules cover nearly all you need to know about forming
possessives:
1. To form the possessive of a noun, add apostrophe + s.
 the books of the student → the student’s books
 the toys of the girl → the girl’s toys
2. If the noun already ends in s, just add an apostrophe at the end of the word.
 the books of the students → the students’ books
 the toys of the girls → the girls’ toys
If a proper noun (a name) ends in -s, you may choose to add either apostrophe + s, or just the
apostrophe alone, depending on whether you would pronounce the extra -s.
Moses’ followers OR Moses’s followers
Remember: Do not use -’s when you are simply showing the plural form:
CORRECT:
Charbroiled eggplants are served here.
INCORRECT:
Charbroiled eggplant’s are served here.
Adapted from Fog City Fundamentals, Fourth Edition, Altman & Deicke, 1998

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