Possessive 's

Level A2 · Nouns & Quantity

Use possessive 's to show that something belongs to or is associated with someone or something — usually a person, an animal, or a group: my sister's car; the dog's tail; the company's profits. It works like of, but is more natural for people and living things: my sister's car, not the car of my sister.

Where the apostrophe goes depends on the noun:

• singular noun: add 's — the dog's tail, my sister's car, Maria's book
• plural noun already ending in -s: add only ' — the dogs' tails, my parents' house, the students' books
• plural noun NOT ending in -s (irregular plurals): add 's — the children's toys, the people's choice, the men's room
• joint ownership by two names: 's only on the last name — Tom and Anna's flat (one shared flat); each name gets 's for separate ownership — Tom's and Anna's flats (two different flats)

For things (not people, animals, organizations, or time expressions), of is usually more natural than 's: the roof of the house, the color of the car — not the house's roof, though this is loosening in casual and journalistic English. 's stays standard for time expressions: today's date, a week's notice.

The most common mistake is writing it's for the possessive: the dog wagged it's tail is wrong — it's always means it is or it has (a contraction), never possession. The possessive of it is its, with no apostrophe at all: the dog wagged its tail. A second common mistake is writing its' — that form doesn't exist in English.

Quick check: can you rephrase it as 'belongs to X' with a person, animal, or organization? → possessive 's. Is the noun already plural and ending in -s? → apostrophe only, no extra s. Could you expand it to it is or it has? → it's, a contraction — never the possessive, which is always its with no apostrophe.

Practice

Singular vs Plural Possessive · Its vs It's & Mixed Practice