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Rules for Forming Possessives

The possessive case indicates not only simple ownership but also other relations. It can denote source or origin as well as description or classification possessive case also replaces an of phrase – for example, one month's salary is the same as the salary of one month.

You use an apostrophe to indicate the possessive case. Two general rules apply for most nouns:

• For singular nouns, you add apostrophe s to form the possessive. The same rule applies to irregular plural nouns. You also apply the rule to indefinite pronouns like someone, anyone, no one, and everyone. Finally, you apply this to nouns – usually creative names – that end in punctuation marks. For instance, the possessive form of Yahoo!, the Internet search engine, is Yahoo!'s.
• For plural nouns, you can add the apostrophe without the s. For instance, you add only an apostrophe to the plural managers in the sentence "The managers' evaluations have been positive."

The general rules for possessives cover most proper nouns in both singular and plural form, as well as numbers and letters.

A rule of thumb for forming possessives is that you don't change the spelling of the noun itself – you always add something to it to form a possessive.

Some nouns that end in s can take an extra syllable when they become possessive. So to match the pronunciation, you add apostrophe s instead of just the apostrophe. For example, you'd write "The witness's statement is strong." Here, witness's is pronounced witnesses. You can also leave out the s, as in "The witness' statement is strong," and pronounce the possessive. Consistency is the key, but the s after the apostrophe – as in witness's – is preferred because it represents the more common pronunciation.

Personal pronouns are often wrongly given apostrophes when they're made possessive. They don't actually take an apostrophe – their spelling changes completely. It is the most common pronoun to be given the apostrophe incorrectly. The word its is the possessive form of it. The possessive its is often confused with it's, where the apostrophe is used to form the contraction for it is.

Mastering the guidelines for using the apostrophe in different possessive structures will improve your business writing in several areas:

• With separate ownership – when two or more nouns possess something separately – you use the possessive form with each noun. For example, Sarah's and Etienne's projects refers to Sarah's project and also Etienne's project. With joint ownership, you use the possessive of only the last noun. So if Sarah and Etienne are working on a joint project, you make only the second name possessive, as in Sarah and Etienne's project.
• You can also use the possessive form to modify a gerund – a verb ending in ing – that is used as a noun. There are several ways to use this construction, and it often creates confusing or awkward sentences. But if you decide to use it out of personal preference, there's a good rule of thumb to help you avoid errors. The rule-of-thumb is to use this construction only in one particular instance – when the word before the gerund can be replaced with a possessive pronoun. This could be a personal pronoun such as I, you, or they, or any proper noun or name. While this rule has several exceptions, it should help you avoid most errors.
• In compound nouns and noun phrases, you make the final word possessive – for example, a team member's reaction. However, when a compound noun is plural, as in the bank accounts' balances, it's often best to use an of phrase instead – so it becomes the balances of the bank accounts. With more complex compound nouns, it's even more important to use the of phrase. Rather than writing editors-in-chief's responsibilities, you'd write the responsibilities of the editors-in-chief.

A fuzzy area in possessives is how to tell a possessive noun from an attributive noun – in other words, when it describes a following noun. For instance, in consumer advocate, consumer is used attributively to modify advocate. But take writers' conference, where writers is used possessively. Here you could leave out the apostrophe and write it attributively, but this isn't ideal. Generally, it's safer to retain the apostrophe. You omit the apostrophe – and use the attributive – only in proper names and where there's clearly no possessive meaning.

Using the apostrophe to show possession involves several rules. The first is to add an apostrophe s for singular nouns to form the possessive. Second, you add just an apostrophe for plural nouns and nouns ending in s. Personal pronouns don't take apostrophes in the possessive case. When two or more nouns possess something separately, you use the possessive form with each noun. But when joint ownership exists, you use the possessive with the last noun only. You can use the possessive form to modify a gerund, but only when you can replace the word before the gerund with a possessive pronoun. In compound nouns and noun phrases, you only use the possessive case with the final word.