Notes

POSSESSIVE NOUNS
As you have studied in years past, possession indicates ownership of something. Depending on whether they are singular or plural, regular or irregular, nouns take a variety of possessive endings as the rules below indicate.

SINGULAR NOUNS: All singular nouns form the possessive by adding an apostrophe ( ' ) and s.

Example:

Sally's coat
my brother's skates

If a singular noun (James) ends in s, add an apostrophe s ( 's ) to make it possessive (James's).

Exception. In a few cases, the rule has an exception that reflects the way people pronounce the word. The following may be correctly written by adding only the apostrophe:
(1) ancient proper names ending in -es Achilles' heel Aristides' loyalty
Moses' leadership Hippocrates' theory
(2) the name James

James' truck
(3) such expressions as for conscience' sake for righteousness' sake for goodness' sake

PLURAL NOUNS: Plural nouns that end in s form the possessive by adding an apostrophe only.

Example:

the ladies' dressing room
the boys' gym teacher

Plural nouns that do not end in s form the possessive by adding an apostrophe and s.

Example:

the men's hats
the children's toys

In cases of joint possession, only the last word shows possession.

Example:

Jack and Barbara's dog
Mother and Father's car

When two or more persons possess something individually, both words show possession.

Example:

Helen's and Linda's books
Dorothy Johnson's and David Washington's law firms

In compound nouns (nouns made of more than one word), only the last word shows possession.

Example:

father-in-law's
editor-in-chief's

COMMON AND PROPER NOUNS
All nouns can be divided into two major groups: common nouns and proper nouns.
A common noun is a general name for something—book, bridge, state. A proper noun is a special name given to a particular thing or person—Arizona, Alice in Wonderland, Golden Gate Bridge. Proper nouns are always capitalized. The picture below will help you understand the difference between common and proper nouns.In the picture above, the gentleman in fine clothing gives you his name, Winston Charles Langley III. That name is a proper noun because it is the special name for only one person. The man in overalls tells you what he is, a farmer. Farmer is a common noun that names many people who farm. Is there a common noun for Winston Charles Langley III? Certainly, there may be several: gentleman, dandy, person. Is there a proper noun for the farmer? Surely he has a name, but he has not told us what it is; perhaps he is Clarence Bentley or Fred Myers.

A good way of telling whether a word is a common noun is to put a, an, or the in front of a word. If the phrase makes sense, the word is usually a common noun. A, an, or the are sometimes called "noun markers" because they mark the presence of a noun. In other words, they tell you that a noun will follow.

Examples: a cat; a dog; a tree; an apple; an elephant; the book; the doctor.

Notice that proper nouns are not normally seen with noun markers unless a specific thing or person is being pointed out.

Examples:

I met the George Bush yesterday.
The Thursday after next is Thanksgiving.