The concept of case in English involves the relationship of a noun, a pronoun, or an adjective (also referred to as a determiner) with other parts of a sentence.<\/p>\n
The possessive case often conveys possession or ownership, such as Joseph’s<\/u> book<\/em> or my<\/u> opinion.<\/em> It is the only case in which nouns alter their form (e.g., Joseph <\/em>to Joseph’s<\/em>). This simple alteration changes a person, place, or thing into an owner or possessor of something else.<\/p>\n The possessive case does not always express straight possession or ownership. It also provides information such as origin or authorship (Mozart’s music<\/em>: the music by Mozart), measurement (mile’s distance<\/em>: the distance of a mile), description (children’s book<\/em>: the book for children), and source (report’s content<\/em>: the content of or from the report).<\/p>\n The possessive case of nouns is formed by adding ‘s<\/em> (report’s<\/em>) or just ‘<\/em> (boys’<\/em>) to the noun. It is also often established with an adjectival prepositional phrase beginning with “of” that indicates a relationship (this is also referred to as the genitive case).<\/p>\n Examples<\/strong><\/p>\n the report’s<\/u> content (a noun has a possessive relationship with another noun) the player’s<\/u> uniform (a noun has a possessive relationship with another noun) A possessive noun will usually include ‘s<\/em> when it is singular (report’s<\/em>) and ‘ <\/em>when it is plural (reports’<\/em>). The noun being possessed also can be either singular or plural:<\/p>\n report’s content reports’ content If a plural possessive noun does not end with s<\/em>, it will take ‘s<\/em>: children’s, people’s.<\/em><\/p>\n If either a singular or a plural possessive noun ends with s<\/em>, style guides will often differ over whether to use ‘ <\/em>or ‘s<\/em>. Technically, either possessive marker can be correct. Many writers will choose according to how a plural possessive noun is pronounced.<\/p>\n If a possessive noun is compound with joint possession, the second (last) noun would be marked with the possessive: Bob and JoAnn’s house <\/em>(they own the house jointly). If the compound has separate possession, both nouns would have a possessive marker: Bob’s and JoAnn’s houses.<\/em><\/p>\n If the possessive noun is a hyphenated compound, we would apply the possessive form to the last word of the compound: sister-in-law’s car.<\/em><\/p>\n In many cases, if the possessive noun is an object, a building, or another inanimate item, we do not need to mark the possession.<\/p>\n Examples<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Let’s meet in the hotel<\/u> lobby (instead of hotel’s<\/u> lobby<\/em>).<\/p>\n They closed the trap<\/u> door (instead of trap’s<\/u> door<\/em>).<\/p>\n Have they delivered the morning<\/u> paper? (instead of morning’s<\/u> paper<\/em>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A possessive-case pronoun replaces a noun in communicating ownership or possession. There are six possessive-case pronouns:<\/p>\nWhat Are Possessive-Case Nouns?<\/h2>\n
\nthe content of the <\/u>report<\/u> (the relationship is expressed by the object of a preposition)<\/p>\n
\nthe uniform of the <\/u>player<\/u> (the relationship is expressed by the object of a preposition)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n<\/em>report’s contents<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/em>reports’ contents<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n
\n Examples<\/em><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Illinois’<\/td>\n Chris’s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n boys’<\/td>\n boss’s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Moses’<\/td>\n Texas’s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n parents’<\/td>\n Bess’s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n What Are Possessive-Case Pronouns?<\/h2>\n