Possessive Nouns - 6th Grade Grammar
Possessive Nouns
A possessive noun names who or what owns something.
A possessive noun is singular when it names one owner.
A possessive noun can be common or proper.
Add an apostrophe and -s to make a singular noun possessive, even when the noun ends in s.
Examples:
the squirrel’s tail
Douglas’s bicycle
the bus’s door
the squirrel’s tail
Douglas’s bicycle
the bus’s door
Plural Possessive Nouns
A possessive noun is plural when it names more than one owner.
If a plural noun is regular and ends in -s, add an apostrophe to make it possessive.
Examples:
schools’
snakes’
If a plural noun is irregular and does not end in -s, add an apostrophe and -s to make it possessive.
Examples:
fish’s
women’s
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Summary + Extra Examples
A possessive noun shows ownership or the relationship between two things. It is usually formed by adding an apostrophe and "s" ('s) to the end of a singular noun or just an apostrophe (') to the end of a plural noun that ends in "s".
Here's a list of different types of possessive nouns and 5 examples for each:
1. Singular Possessive Nouns:
- The dog's collar
- The baby's toys
- The teacher's book
- My sister's car
- Dad's hat
2. Plural Possessive Nouns:
- The children's books
- The women's shoes
- The boys' locker room
- The girls' bathroom
- The students' project
3. Joint Possession:
- My sister and brother's room
- The company's CEO and board of directors' decisions
- The cat and dog's food bowl
- The couple's holiday plans
- The parents' car
4. Indefinite Pronoun Possessive Nouns:
- Someone's phone
- Nobody's business
- Everyone's problem
- Anybody's guess
- Somebody's mistake
5. Compound Possessive Nouns:
- My sister-in-law's car
- The state-of-the-art machine's manual
- The 10-year-old boy's bike
- The Mr. and Mrs. Smith's house
- The team's project proposal.
It's important for students to understand the different types of possessive nouns so that they can effectively use them in their writing and understand their meaning when reading.