Possessive noun can be defined as “A noun names a person, place, thing, idea, quality or action. A possessive noun shows ownership by adding an apostrophe, an “s” or both. To make a single noun possessive, simply add an apostrophe and an ‘s’.”
Possessive noun is a noun which shows ownership or possession in the sentence. Possessive nouns can be in singular or plural forms and used to show ownership in the sentence.
We can write a possessive noun in the sentence by adding an apostrophe and ‘s’ to the noun. Possessive nouns can be easily recognized in the sentence as it always comes with an apostrophe and ‘s’.
For example
All the examples above have obvious possessive nouns as they are showing their ownership to something such as mat of the car, bone of the dog, jacket of the father, and mane of the lion.
Some other examples are like:
The types of possessive noun are mentioned below with proper example:
1) Singular Possessive Noun
Singular possessive noun is a noun which shows a singular noun having ownership in the sentence. Singular possessive nouns can be made using singular nouns by adding apostrophe and ‘s’.
For example: apple’s taste, cat’s tuna, deer’s antlers, book’s cover, boss’s car, computer’s keyboard, Diane’s book, diabetes’s symptoms, goddess’s beauty, Florida’s climate, fish’s eggs, fez’s size, laundry’s smell, jam’s ingredient, house’s roof, lawyer’s fee, gym’s rules, tree’s bark, tray’s usefulness, sun’s rays, today’s newspaper, marble’s shape, month’s work, moss’s color, senator’s vote, progress’s reward, watermelon’s rind, victor’s spoils.
2) Plural Possessive Nouns
Plural possessive noun is a noun which shows a plural noun having ownership in the sentence. Plural possessive nouns can be made using plural nouns by adding only apostrophe at the end of words already having ‘s’. For example: babies’ shoes, garages’ fees, kites’ altitudes, lemons’ acidity, igloos’ construction, cabbages’ nutrition, Americans’ ideals, donors’ cards, eggs’ color, juices’ flavors, members’ votes, frogs’ croaking, inventions’ popularity, nuts’ saltiness, hampers’ conditions, owls’ eyes, planets’ orbits, Suspects’ fingerprints, the Smiths’ house, recesses’ measurements, quizzes’ difficulty, students’ grades, teachers’ qualifications, unicorns’ power, yokes’ material, violins’ melody, wagons’ circle, etc.
Some plural nouns exist without ‘s’, such plural nouns can be converted to plural possessive nouns by adding an apostrophe and ‘s’. For example: people’s ideas, women’s clothes, children’s toys, geese’s eggs, feet’s toenails, cattle’s pasture, mice’s traps, nuclei’s form, oxen’s diet, lice’s size, cacti’s thorns, octopi’s legs, die’s roll, hippopotami’s strength, fungi’s location, formulae’s indication, etc.
3) Some of the hyphenated or compound words can also be converted to possessive nouns (however only last word shows possession). Examples of singular hyphenated possessive nouns: Notre Dame’s tower, my mother-in-law’s advice, my sister-in-law’s marriage, Yellowstone National Park’s hours, t-shirt’s logo, full moon’s brightness, mid-June’s heat, middle class’s income, attorney general’s job, real estate’s decline, front-runner’s confidence, my class teacher’s book, The United States Post Office’s stamps, etc.
Examples of plural hyphenated possessive nouns: six packs’ appeal, water-bottles’ shape, post offices’ hours, bus stops’ repair, changing-rooms’ door, five-year-olds’ excitement, half-sisters’ bedrooms, ex-wives’ alimony, oil spills’ costs, u-boats’ stealth, state governments’ norms, freedom fighters’ sacrifices, etc.
4) Possessive nouns can be made by joining two nouns (two people, two places or two things) together that share common possession of an object. In this case, only second noun carry an apostrophe and ‘s’ such as Jack and Jill’s pail of water, Abbot and Costello’s comedy skit, Ram and Rahul’s school, grandmother and grandfather’s walking stick, mom and dad’s room, brother and sister’s study room, etc.
5) Sometimes two nouns joined together and make possessive noun however they show separate ownership and each noun carry an apostrophe and ‘s’ such as Shyam’s and Ram’s dressing rooms, Seeta’s and Geeta’s musics, mom’s and dad’s mobile phones, teacher’s and principal’s speeches, etc.
We have provided below some exercises in order to help you to improve your knowledge about possessive noun. You need to get detail information about possessive noun provided above and check your skill by doing following exercises. Choose correct possessive nouns from following sentences and match with the given answer:
Answers: 1 – John’s, 2 – girl’s, 3 – men’s, 4 – sailor’s, 5 – Thomas’s, 6 – John’s, 7 – politician’s, 8 – James’s, 9 – Smiths’s, 10 – John’s, 11 – Brown’s, 12 – John’s, 13 – John’s, 14 – brother’s, 15 – day’s, 16 – today’s, 17 – God’s, 18 – restaurant’s, 19 – dentist’s, 20 – Saint Mary’s, 21 – death’s, 22 – grandmother’s, 23 – mom’s, 24 – father’s, 25 – class teacher’s, 26 – sister’s, 27 – Agra’s, 28 – brother’s, 29 – parent’s, 30 – friend’s.
Related Topics:
Noun
Proper Noun
Common Noun
Compound Noun
Countable Noun
Uncountable Noun
Collective Noun
Concrete Noun
Abstract Noun
Singular Noun
Plural Noun