Possessive nouns in English can feel tricky at first, but they’re easy once you learn the rules. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to form possessive nouns with apostrophes, see clear examples, and practice using them correctly in everyday sentences.
The meaning of POSSESSIVE is of, relating to, or constituting a word, a word group, or a grammatical case that denotes ownership or a relation analogous to ownership.
Learn about possessive nouns and how to use them with rules and examples. Explore singular, plural, and irregular possessive nouns and possessive pronouns.
We use possessive 's to say that something or someone belongs to a person, is connected to a place, or to show the relationship between people. The possessive 's always comes after a noun.
The possessive case shows the relationship of a noun to other words in a sentence. The relationship can be possession, ownership, or another form of association.
In English, possessive words or phrases exist for nouns and most pronouns, as well as some noun phrases. These can play the roles of determiners (also called possessive adjectives when corresponding to a pronoun) or of nouns.
Do you know how to use possessive 's? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.
One of the most common points of confusion in English grammar is the difference between possessive adjectives (which need a noun) and possessive pronouns (which stand alone).
The possessive case is used for showing possession (i.e., ownership). The possessive case applies to nouns, pronouns, and determiners. For example: With a noun, the possessive case is usually shown by preceding it with "of" or by adding 's (or just ') to the end. This is the dog's dinner.