Possessives

Possessives show ownership.

Possessive Nouns

A possessive noun shows ownership. Add ’s to make a singular noun show ownership. Add an apostrophe (’) after the s of a plural noun to show ownership.

A possessive noun shows ownership. Add ’s to make a singular noun show ownership. Add an apostrophe (’) after the s of a plural noun to show ownership.

Read also: Worksheet Possessive

• To form the possessive of a singular noun, add ‘s. Example: (boy’s)
• To form the possessive of a plural noun ending in -s, add an apostrophe. Example: (girls).
• To form the possessive of a plural noun that does not end in -s, add ‘s. Example: (men’s)

Singular possessives (Noun) – Examples:

1. The computer’s screen is flickering.
2. The king’s palace is beautiful.
3. The singers’ voices are very beautiful.
4. The man’s shoe collection is impressive, he has hundreds.

Plural possessives (Nouns) – Examples:

1. The boys’ toys are scattered all over the playground.
2. The girls’ books are filled with adventure and magic.
3. The men’s shoes are polished and ready for the big night.

Read also: Day 2: Nouns

Read also: Day 3: Pronouns

SINGULAR                                         PLURAL

Noun              Possessive                Plural             Possessive

Man                man’s                          men                 men’s

woman            woman’s                      women            women’s

child                 child’s                          children           children’s

1. There are three types  of –s endings:

• Plural only                  -s                                                        
• Possessive only        -’s
• Plural possessive      -s’

2. The spelling of the various possessive -s is very consistent, which is one of the great things about writing them. For instance, the possessive forms of irregular nouns that transform f to v in the plural are spelled as follows:

• Singular: wolf
• Possessive: wolf’s (note that the f does not change to v)
• Plural: wolves
• Plural possessive: wolves’

3. Here is how we spell the possessives of nouns ending in consonant + y:

• Singular: spy
• Possessive: spy’s
• Plural: spies
• Plural possessive: spies’

4. Notice that the plural spies is spelled differently than the possessive singular spy’s. In the singular possessive, the y does not change to i and we do not add –es. We just add the normal -’s.

Here is how we spell the possessive nouns ending in vowel + y:

• Singular: boy
• Possessive: boy’s
• Plural: boys
• Plural possessive: boys’

Keep in mind that since the y is a part of the vowel’s spelling, it remains unaltered.

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronoun shows ownership or possession without using a noun. It replaces a possessive noun.

Singular possessives (Pronouns):

  (Mine, Yours, His, Hers)

Examples:

1. The book is mine, and I’m not lending it to anyone.
2. The gift is yours, and I hope you like it.
3. The car is his, and he’s very proud of it.
4. The painting is hers, and it’s a beautiful piece of art.

Plural Possessives (Pronouns): 

(Ours, Yours, Theirs)

Examples:

1. The house is ours, and we’re excited to move in.
2. The success is yours, and you deserve to celebrate.
3. The award is theirs, and they worked hard to earn it.

Read also: Day 4: Singular and plural forms of nouns

Read also: Worksheet Possessive

Read also: Day 6: A, some, any – countable and uncountable nouns

Possessive Adjectives

When you want to talk about something that belongs to someone or something, you use a possessive adjective. A possessive adjective answers questions related to ownership such as:

• Whose house is this? (Answer: My/Mine)
• Whose books are these? (Answer: Hers/Hers)
• Whose television is that? (Answer: His/His)

Possessives

Subject Pronoun	Possessive Adjective	Example
I	My	My house is on park Avenue
You	Your	Do you have your phone with you?
He	His	Nick loves his father’s cooking.
She	Her	Her purse is very stylish.
It	its	A butterfly flutters its wings beautifully.
We	Our	We spend all our free time on computers.
They	Their	The students will share their favorite CDs.

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