Tip of the Week -- Singular and Plural Possessives

Last week, we talked about apostrophes in contractions and possessives. This week I wanted to take a closer look at possessives. Possessive apostrophes can be confusing, but we'll try to make it clear.

Singulars are easy! Just add "apostrophe s". For example, Jim's car.

But what if Jim uses his real name, James? Is it James' car? James's car? James car? Well, James is one person, so he's singular. Use the same rule! James's car is correct.

Now let's look a plural example. The Smiths live next door. Notice that we just add an s to show that there is more than one Smith living next door. If they have a cat, we would say the Smiths' cat. The apostrophe after the s shows that Smith is plural, that is, a number of Smiths own the cat. If Mrs. Smith lives alone and has a cat, it would be Mrs. Smith's cat.

Here's an easy way to remember: If there is one Smith (singular), then the singular word Smith appears before the apostrophe. If there is more than one Smith (plural), then the plural word Smiths comes before the apostrophe.

Let's look at one more example. What if the James family lives next door? We say, "The Jameses live next door. If Mr. James (singular) has a truck, we would say Mr. James's truck. If the James family (plural) has a dog, we would say the Jameses' dog.