Possessive Nouns: ’s or s’

A2–B1NounsJanuary 27, 2026

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Hi, it's your favorite teacher, teacher

Tom. Let's talk about possessive nouns

today. Actually, this lesson is very

easy to teach and to learn. When we have

a noun, for example,

the boy,

boy is the noun. If we want to make that

noun possessive,

we add apostrophe s. For example,

the boy's cat.

The cat belongs to the boy. One boy.

B O Y apostrophe S means that one boy

owns or possesses

something. In this case,

a cat.

If it's plural, if there are two or more

boys, the pronunciation is the same. It

sounds the same. The boy's cat. So it

depends on the context but in the

written sense when we are writing or

reading it does make a difference to

make b y apostrophe s

one boy

b o ys apostrophe

two or more boys.

So the boy's cat B O Y S apostrophe

means that one cat belongs to more than

one boy.

All right, pretty easy, right?

If the singular noun ends in s, we can

use apostrophe s or probably more

commonly just an apostrophe.

So, what happens if we have a plural

noun that doesn't end in s, an irregular

noun? For example, women. Women is

plural. Men, children, mice, people.

These are all plural nouns that don't

end in s. They are irregular. They're

not regular.

So for example, women women is plural.

So how do we make this possessive? It's

very easy. Just apostrophe s.

The women's

the women's

clothes.

More than one woman own the clothes.

Men. Men is plural. Men's apostrophe s.

The men's clothes.

More than one man possesses or owns the

clothes.

Children.

Children is plural. One child, two

children. or three children or 100

children. Again, apostrophe s.

The children's toys.

Many children own many toys.

The child's toy. One child owns one toy.

Children is plural. Apostrophe s makes

it possessive.

mice.

Mice is the plural of mouse.

The mic's

The mice's cheese.

Remember the word mices without an

apostrophe is incorrect.

One mouse, two mice.

We only say mic's if we are using the

possessive.

This is the mice's cheese. This is the

mice's food.

People.

One person, two people, 1,000 people. 7

billion people.

Apostrophe S.

The people's rights.

This is the people's food

apostrophe s.

So there you go.

If you have a singular noun that doesn't

end in s, we use apostrophe s.

If we have a plural noun that ends in s,

just add an apostrophe.

If we have a singular noun that ends in

s, we can add just an apostrophe or

apostrophe s.

If we have a plural noun that doesn't

end in s, it's irregular, for example,

women, we add apostrophe s. And these

are the basics to the possessive nouns.

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About this lesson

Learn how to use possessive nouns correctly, including when to use ’s and when to use s’ in English.

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