Possessive nouns: what you learned
Add an apostrophe and an s to the owner. That shows the owner owns something.
| The long way | The short way |
|---|---|
| the cup that belongs to Leo | Leo’s cup |
| the nest that belongs to the bird | the bird’s nest |
| the bike that belongs to my brother | my brother’s bike |
The one that catches everybody
| Written | What it means |
|---|---|
| two cats | more than one cat |
| the cat’s bowl | a bowl belonging to one cat |
No apostrophe means more than one. An apostrophe means owning. Mixing those two up is the most common punctuation mistake there is.
Three things to keep straight
| What people write | What is right |
|---|---|
| We sell apple’s. | We sell apples. Nobody owns a thing there. |
| the dog bowl’s | the dog’s bowl. The mark goes on the owner. |
| Avas kite | Ava’s kite. The mark comes before the s. |
The sentence to remember
“Ava’s cats sat on the step.”
One word has a mark. The next one does not. Ava owns them, and there is more than one cat.
Quick warm-up before the check
Write the short way.
- “the truck that belongs to my uncle”
- “the bread that belongs to the baker”
- “the branches that belong to the tree”
Answers
- “my uncle’s truck”
- “the baker’s bread”
- “the tree’s branches”
Now take the final check below.
Where to go next
- Possessive Pronouns: my and your and his and her doing the same job
- One and More Than One: the plural rule this one is easy to confuse with
- Nouns: People, Places, Animals, and Things: the naming words themselves
- Special Names and Titles for People: capital letters on the owners