– When do I use -s, -es, ‘s, or s’? Or, please help me with plurals and possessives!

Creating the correct plural and possessive forms of nouns can be a very confusing subject for many writers for a very simple reason: plurals and all possessives involve the letter “s” somehow. The trick is figuring out whether you need the “s” by itself or whether it needs some help in the form of an “e” or an apostrophe.

Plural nouns are used to indicate that there is more than one of something. Most commonly, the plural form of a noun will be formed by adding -s to the end of the word, for example the plural form of noun is nouns. Any words ending in -ch, x, s or s-like sounds, need -es added to create the plural: one glass becomes many glasses. There are some nouns, however, that have irregular plural forms that do not include either -s or -es. Some examples are children, women, mice, and fungi. For more information about creating and using plural nouns, visit this helpful site.

Possessive nouns are used to show ownership. These types of nouns can be singular or plural. An “s” preceded by an apostrophe is added at the end of a singular noun to create its possessive form: the singular girl becomes the possessive girl‘s. To create the possessive form of a plural noun, start by finding the plural form of the noun and looking at its ending. If the plural ends in “s” (preceded by any letter), then simply add an apostrophe after the “s” to create the plural possessive. If the plural does not end in “s”, however, you will need to add both the apostrophe and the “s” (like in the singular possessive). For example, the plural form of girl is girls, which ends in “s”; the plural possessive will then be girls‘. The plural noun children does not end in “s”, however, so the plural possessive will be children‘s. Always remember, the only type of plural noun that uses an apostrophe is a possessive plural. Never use the apostrophe just to create a plural form of a noun!

But, wait, how do you know if you should use a singular possessive or a plural possessive? When showing ownership, you will have someone or something who is doing the owning and someone/something that is being owned. Both of these have the potential to be either singular or plural, which can cause some confusion in determining if you need a singular or plural possessive. To figure that out, the only information you need to know is how many people/things are doing the owning. If the owner is singular, then use a singular possessive: the girl‘s cat refers to one girl owning one cat. If there are multiple owners, use the plural possessive: the girls’ cat refers to multiple girls owning one cat. The number of things being owned has absolutely no effect on whether or not you should use the singular or plural form of the possessive noun.

If you’d like to learn more about possessives and plurals, check out this online guide. You can also find some great information and a few practice quizzes here (scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the quizzes). To read more about how and when to use apostrophes, visit this page.

Posted in: Grammar