Sign inPossessive Nouns for intermediate learners
Possessive structures have many functions like showing ownership or belonging. With the help of apostrophe 's', we can make a possessive noun. Let's start!
What Are Possessive Nouns?
In English, we use possessive nouns to indicate possession or ownership of something or someone by us or another person.
Structure
To form a possessive noun, we can add ('s), which is an apostrophe and the letter 's', to the end of the noun indicating the possessor.
My daughter
The bird
Tip!
When indicating possession of a singular noun ending in 's', there are different writing styles that can be used. As shown in the following examples, both are correct:
My boss
As you can see, the sentence is referring to one person.
My boss
Here, the meaning is the same as the previous example but the writing style is different.
Plural Nouns
Possessive nouns can be formed using both regular and irregular nouns. However, for countable regular nouns, we typically add an apostrophe (') at the end of the noun to indicate possession.
The books
Here, the sentence is about a number of books and only an apostrophe is used at the end of the noun.
The trees
When using irregular or unchanging plural nouns, we can form possessive nouns by adding ('s) at the end of the noun.
In shopping malls, women
The sheep
Uses
Possessive nouns have a wide range of uses in the English language. Let us examine some of their uses:
- To Show Relationship
- To Show Possession and Belonging
- To Avoid Repetition
To Show Relationship
Possessive nouns are commonly used to indicate relations between people. Take a look at the following examples:
Mathew
As you can see, the possessive noun is used to show how two people are connected to each other.
Carlos
To Show Possession and Belonging
Generally, possessive nouns are used to indicate ownership or belonging of something or someone. Take a look at the statements below:
The turtle
The phone
To Avoid Repetition
At times, possessive nouns are used to avoid repetition of something that has already been mentioned in a statement. Pay attention to the following example:
(Please note that it is also
Tip!
Knowing how to use possessive nouns can be helpful in indicating places and locations.
He's going to
Here, the sentence is about a person who is going to go to John's house.
Weren't you at the
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