Have you ever wondered why one says ‘the dog’s bone’ instead of ‘the bone of the dog’? Or, perhaps you’ve pondered the difference between its and it’s? Then, let’s have a close look at possessives in English grammar; this means indicating ownership of something, often using apostrophes, but not always. What are the exceptions? And how does one denote the possessive with the different parts of speech such as nouns, pronouns and determiners? All will be explained.
Expressing the possessive of a noun without an apostrophe
When one refers to the ‘possessive’ in grammar, one is talking about expressing ownership of something:
- The house of my neighbours
- The toy of the child
Over the years, in English, the possessive has been expressed in a variety of ways:
- The neighbours their house
- The child its toy
The above structure is still used formally in some languages, but in English it is no longer acceptable. Written languages have a tendency to evolve to reflect the way people speak them, and since over the centuries people developed easier and smoother ways to express possession, writing had to find a tidy way to express how people spoke naturally:
- The neighbours’ house
- The child’s toy
The use of the apostrophe denotes possession and the written spelling of the words indicates how they are spoken or to be read aloud.
The apostrophe in English – a short history of it
The history of the apostrophe can be traced back to ancient Greece, where a punctuation mark resembling a small diagonal stroke was used to indicate missing letters in words. This mark, known as an ‘apostrophos’ in Greek, served as a visual cue for the omission of letters, especially in the context of contractions. The Greeks used it to indicate where letters had been omitted from a word to save space or to simplify writing, thus paving the way for its future role in English.
In Britain, punctuation first began to be used in the seventh century, until which time words were written without punctuation and without spaces! Gradually, scribes introduced ways of making texts more legible so that fewer errors might occur when reading them to the public. It was in medieval times that the apostrophe found its way to Britain, thanks to the Normans who invaded in 1066 AD, taking over the reign of the land for several hundred years and introducing it to the French language. The Norman conquest in the eleventh century initiated a fusion of the languages of Old English and Norman French, and this is the reason today’s English still serves as a bridge between the Italic and Germanic language branches. In Britain, the merging of these languages coincided with the introduction of the apostrophe. Many writers, such as William Shakespeare, endeavoured to find ways of expressing their writing clearly, and in particular in written dialogue, with the rapidly growing language. So, the apostrophe became a crucial tool for denoting the contractions that reflected the speech of the late Middle English era (1400-1500 AD).
In its early uses, the apostrophe only signified the absence of one or more letters (contractions); using it to indicate possessives was fiercely debated for several hundred years, even until the late 1800s. From that time, its uses were standardised and codified by influential grammarians and writers, and while these still change from decade to decade, this article reflects their current acceptable usage.
Marking the possessive noun with an apostrophe
The grammatically correct way to denote possession in writing, in modern English, is to use an apostrophe:
- Today’s English (the English of today)
- This morning’s agenda (the agenda of this morning)
In some instances, such as those above, possession is not literal possession as in ownership, but rather a ‘belonging to’.
One of the pitfalls of using an apostrophe is knowing how to indicate plurality of possession:
- The cat‘s whiskers = one cat
In the above example, the placement of the apostrophe after the singular noun ‘cat’ shows that we are talking about the whiskers of one cat. The -s that appears incidentally after the cat merely reflects how the words are spoken.
- The cats‘ whiskers = multiple cats
In the above example, the placement of the apostrophe after the plural noun ‘cats’ shows that we are talking about the whiskers of more than one cat.
- The scholar’s insights (the insights of one scholar)
- The scholars’ insights (the insights of multiple scholars)
Note that the nouns being possessed (whiskers and insights) are not affected by the possessive apostrophe:
- The boy’s idea (one boy has an idea)
- The boys’ idea (numerous boys have an idea)
- The girl’s book (the book of one girl)
- The girls’ book (a book shared by more than one girl)
Possession with irregular plural nouns
- The child’s book (the book of the child)
- The children’s books (the books of the children)
- The man’s clothes (the clothes of the man)
- The men’s clothes (the clothes of the men)
- The woman’s clothes (the clothes of the woman)
- The women’s clothes (the clothes of the women)
- The person’s manners (the manners of the person)
- The people’s manners (the manners of the people)
- The medium’s way (the way of the medium)
- The media’s way (the way of the media)
In all the examples above, the nouns have an irregular plural form; that is to say they look different to their singular form, rather than simply having an -s added to them. For more on irregular plurals please see the relevant post.
Possession with proper nouns
A proper noun is a noun that is a name, such as of a person or place. The following examples show how a possessive apostrophe indicates possession in conjunction with a name.
- Simon’s book (the book of Simon)
- Simon and Peter’s book (the book that belongs to both Simon and Peter)
- Simon and Peter’s books (the books that belong to both Simon and Peter)
- Jane’s book (the book that belongs to Jane)
Simply put, the apostrophe goes after the name or names. Confusion frequently arises when a name ends with an -s. There is no need for this:
- James’s book
- Jane’s book
- Francis’s book
- Peter’s book
Regardless of its spelling, the name is still followed by an apostrophe and an (additional) ‘s’.
In summary
Notice that the apostrophe is placed after the noun, whether singular or plural, with an apostrophe + s added. The -s is added because this is the way it is spoken. The placement of the apostrophe always makes sense:
If one removes the ‘s from ‘The boy‘s books’ they are the books of the boy.
If one removes the ‘ from ‘The boys‘ books’ they are the books of the boys.
If one removes the ‘s from ‘The child‘s books’ they are the books of the child.
If one removes the ‘s from ‘The children‘s books’ they are the books of the children.
If one removes the ‘s from ‘Sarah‘s books’ they are the books of Sarah.
If one removes the ‘s from ‘Seamus‘s books’ they are the books of Seamus.
If one removes the ‘s from ‘Simon and Peter‘s books’ they are the books of Simon and Peter.
Using apostrophes to denote plurality
Before continuing, it is important for some foreign students of the English language to be aware that, in certain European languages, the use of an apostrophe indicates plurals. This practice emerged as a solution to the challenge of distinguishing between singular and plural forms of words that had become homophonous due to language evolution and simplification of inflectional endings. Linguistic shifts cause each language to develop and evolve differently and it is important to know that using an apostrophe to denote a plural is NOT practised and is never acceptable in present day English. (Although it was used during the 1960s to indicate plurals of some numbers, e.g. 1960’s, this is no longer the case.)
Possessive pronouns
Possessive pronouns are a subset of pronouns that indicate possession of something. Please see the relevant post on pronouns for more information on this. These pronouns are used to replace nouns (as pronouns do) and they show who owns or possesses an object, idea or concept. Pronouns eliminate the need to repeat the noun in a sentence, making the language more concise and fluid. In English, there are several possessive pronouns:
Mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs
These are the absolute forms of possessive pronouns, used without a following noun. They stand alone as possessive determiners:
- The blue car is mine
- The red car is yours
- The brown car is hers
- The black car is his
- The gold car is ours
- The white car is theirs
Whose
This pronoun indicates possession and is used in questions to ask about ownership:
- Whose car is this?
- Whose car is the yellow one?
One’s
This is a less commonly used possessive pronoun that it is used in formal speech and writing and is a generic way to indicate possession without specifying a person male, female, singular, plural or otherwise:
- Taking care of one’s responsibilities is essential for personal growth
- Maintaining cleanliness is one’s duty.
- It is important to protect one’s personal information in today’s digital age.
One is the only pronoun that takes an apostrophe + s to denote possession, and be aware that one’s has two uses because one’s can also be used to denote a contraction of one is. For more information on the use of apostrophes in contractions, please see the relevant article. These usages are primarily due to the historical evolution of the language, but also due to the fact that ones without an apostrophe has another usage without a possessive sense:
- Among all the available options, which ones are you considering?
- The red shoes are too tight, but the blue ones fit perfectly.
- These biscuits are chocolate chip, and those ones are plain.
- In this collection of photographs, the black and white ones evoke a sense of nostalgia.
In the above examples, ones is the plural pronoun of the singular personal pronoun one. Please see the relevant post on pronouns for more information on this.
Possessive determiners
Possessive determiners, also known in some grammars as possessive adjectives, are a subset of determiners that indicate ownership or possession of a noun by relating it to a specific person or thing. While these appear to be similar to the pronouns detailed above, in the case of a determiner, rather than replacing the noun, they come before nouns and help clarify who owns or possesses the object being referred to.
My, your, his, her, its, our, their
These pronouns indicate possession in relation to the person speaking (first person):
- This is my/our dog
The person being spoken to (second person):
- Your dog loves to play
Or a third party (third person):
- That is its lead and collar
- His favourite toy is over there.
- One should take care of one’s health
Possessive determiners agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. For instance, ‘my’ is used before a singular noun to show that something belongs to the speaker, while ‘their’ is employed before a plural noun to indicate ownership by a group. By using possessive determiners, we can express relationships and ownership clearly in English.
Conclusion
There are numerous ways in which possession can be expressed. One can use a possessive pronoun or determiner within a sentence, or one can add an apostrophe (and perhaps an -s) to a noun.
Exercises to practise
Practise using possessives correctly with the following exercises.
If you have any questions or comments, please do enter them below.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Burton-Roberts, Noel. Analysing Sentences: An Introduction to English Syntax, 4th edn (Routledge, 2016)
Cresswell, Julia. Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd edn (Oxford University Press, 2021)
Crystal, David. Making a Point: The Pernickety Story of English Punctuation (Profile Books, 2016)
Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, 3rd edn (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
Dreyer, Benjamin. Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style (Penguin Random House, 2020)
Gwynne, N. M. Gwynne’s Grammar: The Ultimate Introduction to Grammar and the Writing of Good English (Ebury Press/Random House, 2013)
Hewings, Martin, and others. Cambridge English Grammar and Vocabulary for Advanced (Cambridge University Press, 2015)
Huddleston, Rodney, and others. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
Parrott, Martin. Grammar for English Language Teachers, 2nd edn (Cambridge University Press, 2011)
Quirk, Randolph, and others. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, reprint edn (Pearson, 2011)
Seely, John. Oxford A – Z of Grammar & Punctuation (Oxford University Press, 2020)
Trask, R. L. The Penguin Guide to Punctuation (Penguin Books, 1997)
New Hart’s Rules: The Handbook of Style for Writers and Editors (Oxford University Press, 2005)
This article is incredibly comprehensive and offers deep insights into the use of possessives in English grammar. I appreciate the historical context provided about the apostrophe, which gives readers a better understanding of its evolution and current usage. The examples and explanations are well-articulated, making it easier for both native speakers and English learners to grasp.
My Question is, Could you delve into instances where double possessives (like “a friend of mine” rather than “my friend”) are used and how they fit into the landscape of English possessives?
Thank you,
Lou.
Hi Lou. Many thanks for your comments. I’m glad you also appreciate the foray into the historical.
What a great question! This is just a quick response, but in the coming days look out for a new post on double possessives.