Possessive 's

Let’s look at talking about things that people own. You can test yourself with the quiz at the end.

Using Possesives

If you want to talk about things that are owned by something else, we use possessives. The possessive is always after the owner.

The first way to show possession is to add ‘s to the owner.

This is Jack‘s car.
Amy‘s hair is so pretty.
The house‘s bathroom is upstairs.

We can speak about family and friends using ‘s.

My dad‘s parents live there.
Paul‘s best friend is Chris.

You can connect positives.

We are going to use Paul’s dad’s car.

If a owner ends in s, we can add either ‘ or ‘s, but we still say the second s.

That’s Chris‘ laptop?
That’s the boss‘s sandwich.

If there are multiple owners and the noun ends in s, then we just add an ‘

The athletes’ water is over there.
My grandparents’ house is up the hill.

If not, then add ‘s as before

This is the people‘s government.
The men‘s club is down the street.

When listing owners, only add the ‘s to the final owner of the list.

It’s John, Paul and Ben‘s shopping.

We can also change pronouns (I, he, she, they, etc.) to show possession.

For example:

The bag is his.
It’s thier house.