Showing possession through nouns

Possession can be shown in two ways:

The man was mending his car.
The car was being mended by a man.

by adding -’s to a singular noun, or an irregular plural noun that does not end in -s.

one dog	one boy	several children
the dog’s bones	the boy’s books	the children’s toys

by adding -’ to a plural noun.

more than one dog	more than one boy
the dogs’ bones	the boys’ books

There is also the of possessive (a phrase with of followed by a noun).

the side of the ship

the end of the queue

The of possessive is not just a different way of saying the same thing as the -’s possessive.

the boy’s pencil

but not the pencil of the boy

The -’s possessive is generally used only with nouns referring to animate items (e.g. people and animals) and in time phrases.

the driver’s foot	the dog’s nose
today’s newspaper	a week’s holiday

The of possessive is generally used with nouns referring to inanimate things (i.e. objects) and abstract ideas.

the leg of the table	the arm of the sofa
the wheel of the car	the foot of the bed
the world of ideas	the power of thought

The function of the possessive form in English is to:

show possession.

the boy’s books

the dog’s blanket

show a relationship, with a person either as the originator or the user of the thing named.

her parents’ consent	the student’s letter
a women’s club	the children’s park

indicate that a place is where someone works or lives.

a grocer’s	the butcher’s
a solicitor’s	my aunt’s

show that something is a part of a whole.

the leg of the table	the dog’s nose
the wheel of the car	the girl’s shoulder

add a descriptive element which premodifies a noun. It is a type of determiner. See also Determiners.

writer’s cramp

A Winter’s Tale

Rules for the formation of the possessive -’s (apostrophe -s) and -s’ (-s apostrophe) are as follows:

most singular nouns add an apostrophe + -s.

a girl’s ring

a cat’s face

most plural nouns add an apostrophe after the plural form -s.

the boys’ football

five young girls’ faces

There are exceptions for the following:

common nouns that end in -s in the singular. When these are made plural the choice of -’s or a simple apostrophe is optional.

a cactus	the cactus’ spines
	the cactus’s habitat

plural nouns not ending in -s, for example those that that have a plural ending in -en. In this case, add an apostrophe + s.

children’s

men’s

proper nouns and common nouns that end in -s. These usually add -’s in the singular unless the final sound of the basic word is [-iz], in which case, a simple apostrophe is sufficient.

Mrs Evans’s car	Mr Jones’s fence
Keats’s poetry	the Bates’s cat
I like Dickens’s novels
Peter Bridges’ car

Compound nouns (see Compound nouns) put the -’s or the simple apostrophe at the end of the complete compound.

my mother-in-law	my mother-in-law’s car
the runner-up	the runner-up’s trophy
the fire-fighters	the fire-fighters’ efforts

Noun phrases that are descriptive of someone’s role or profession put the -’s on the headword of the phrase.

a stock market analyst’s annual income
the senior hospital consultant’s weekly visit

If they use an of construction the -’s or simple apostrophe usually goes on the last noun.

the President of Austria’s official car
the director of marketing’s personal assistant