Nouns: Singular and Plural Possessive

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

In this lesson, we're going to take a look at possessive nouns. Possessive means that someone owns something.

(Before moving on, if you missed either of the previous Nouns Related Lessons, catch them in the right-hand sidebar.)

Just like other nouns, possessive nouns can be singular or plural.

• Singular means one.
• Plural means more than one.

Singular

Look at the sentence:

The green cube's smile makes it look happy.

The word cube's is a singular possessive noun because cube is singular (one cube), and it owns its smile!

To make a singular noun possessive, add a an apostrophe (') and an s:

The kitten's ball is orange.

If the word already ends in s, you can just add an apostrophe or an apostrophe and an s. Either way is acceptable!

Chris' sandwich or Chris's sandwich

Plural

Now look at the sentence:

The red balls' frowns make them look sad.

The word balls' is a plural possessive noun because balls is plural (many balls), and they own their frowns!

To make a plural possessive noun possesive, there are a couple of rules to follow:

• If it ends in an s, you simply add an apostrophe after the s.
• If it doesn't end in s, you add an apostrophe and an s, ('s), as in: children's toys.

For a quick review of what you've learned, watch Punctuation: Using apostrophes to show singular & plural possession (KS2) by Discovery Education UK:

Let's see how much you remember!

• Did you get them all correct?

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Now you're ready to go on to the Got It? section to practice this skill.