POSSESSIVE CASE RULES

ENGLISH  -  POSSESSIVE  CASE  RULES

1.    If the noun is singular add  “-s”

Eg.       John’s cycle,                Mary’s problem

2.    The letter “s” is omitted in a few words which have many hissing sounds.

Eg.       For justice’s sake,        Moses’ laws

3.    If a plural noun doesnot end in “s”  the possessive is formed by adding ‘s’.

Eg.       Men’s college              children’s problems

4.    If the plural noun ends in ‘s’ the possessive is formed by adding only apostrophe.

Eg.       Boys’ hostel                girls’ school

5.    When a noun consists of a group of words,  ‘s’  is added to the last word.

Eg.,      the president of India’s office                        this is Milton, the poet’s grave

6.    If two nouns are closely connected, ‘s’ is added to the second noun.

Eg.,      Gopal and Shanker’s house                William and Mary’s reign.

7.    If two nouns are separate,  ‘s’  is added to the both the nouns.

Eg.,      Milton’s and Tennyson’s poems.

8.    The possessive case is used with nouns denoting time, space, weight

Eg.,      in a month’s time        a metre’s length           a kilo’s weight

9.      For non-living things possessive case  ‘s’ is not used.

Eg.,      the  leg of the table     the roof of the building

10.  ‘s’ is not used with pronouns

Eg.,      yours faithfully           this house is ours