Use Plurals and Possessives in Writing

Plural and possessive forms of English words often confuse beginning writers. Many writers incorrectly use apostrophes to indicate both plural and possessive forms, while many writers for whom English is not their first language omit the apostrophe entirely because their native language does not use it. Still others are unsure when to use "-s" and when to use "-es" to indicate the plural form of a word.

Steps

Deciding When to Use Plural and Possessive Forms

1. Use the plural form to indicate more than 1 of something. For example, "I installed 1 door of the 2 doors I bought." The plural "doors" indicates that more than 1 door was purchased.
2. Use the possessive form to indicate ownership of something. For example, "The boy's dog chased the girls down the street." The possessive "boy's" shows that the boy owns the dog that chased the girls. Add an apostrophe and an “s” to change a word into the possessive form of that word.
3. Know that there are exceptions to the rules. Most words will follow the basic guidelines for transforming a word into a plural or possessive form. However, there are some words that do not follow the rules. It takes time and practice to identify if a word is an exception. Having a quality dictionary is helpful in these situations.

Making a Word Plural

1. Put an "-s" after most nouns to make the word plural. "Cat" means there is a only one cat. "Cats" means that there is more than one cat. This covers most words in the English language.
   • An "-s" without an apostrophe is also used to show the plural of an acronym in all capitals (such as "POWs" for "prisoners of war" or "RBIs" for "runs batted in") or for decade labels such as the 1880s or 1950s. (When the decade label is abbreviated, such as "'50s" for "1950s", an apostrophe is used before the number 50 to show the truncation.)
   • An apostrophe -s may be used to indicate a plural for single lowercase letters, abbreviations with periods or other abbreviations where the "s" alone would be confusing such as "x's". Generally, apostrophes are only used for lower-case letters. Capital letters and numbers, such as used in "MP3s," do not require an apostrophe. In general, an apostrophe is not used to indicate a plural.
   • Abbreviations for units of measure do not have plural forms, while abbreviations used to indicate parts of writing either take no plural ("ch" for "chapter" or "chapters") or a single letter for the singular and a double letter for plural ("p" for "page", but "pp" for "pages").
2. Be on the lookout for compound nouns. Certain compound words require identifying which word is the word being pluralized. For compound words such as "daughter-in-law" or "attorney general", the first word is pluralized ("daughters-in-law" or "attorneys general").
3. Put an "-es" after words that end with "-ch", "-sh", "-x", "-z", "-s" or sounds like these letter combinations. For example, the plural of "ditch" is "ditches", the plural of "brush" is "brushes", the plural of "fox" is "foxes", the plural of "fuzz" is "fuzzes" and the plural of "dress" is "dresses."
   • If the word already ends in "-e", the plural is formed by adding an "-s": the plural of "judge" is "judges", and the plural of "phrase" is "phrases."
   • Some plurals of words ending in "-s" double the final "s" before adding the plural suffix. The plural form of "bus" may be written as either "buses" or "busses", depending on whether "bus" refers to a vehicle ("buses") or an electronic component ("busses").
4. Put an "-es" after words ending in "-o" preceded by a consonant. The plural of "tomato" is "tomatoes", and the plural of "zero" is "zeroes."
   • Words ending in "-o" followed by a single consonant that English gets from another language typically form their plurals by adding "-s". The plural of "piano" is "pianos".
   • Some words ending in "-o" preceded by a consonant can form their plurals using either "-es" or "-s." The plural of "tornado" can be written either "tornadoes" or "tornadoes", and the plural of "volcano" can be written either "volcanoes" or "volcanoes".
5. Put an "-es" after words ending in "-y" preceded by a consonant. First, however, you need to change the "-y" to an "-i." For example, the plural of "berry" is "berries", and the plural of "lady" is "ladies."
   • This rule does not generally apply for proper names that end in "-y": the plural of "Tony" (the man's name or the theater award) is "Tonys."
   • A few words ending in "-y" preceded by a vowel also change the "y" to an "-i"; the plural of "money" can be written as "monies."
6. Put an "-es" after some words ending in an "f" sound. You will need to change the "-f" to a "-v." The plural of "calf" is "calves", the plural of "knife" is "knives" and the plural of "leaf" is "leaves", except when referring to the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team. However, the plural of "proof" is "proofs", not "proves", which is a form of the verb "to prove."
   • Some words ending with "-f" can form their plurals by either adding "-s" or changing the "f" to a "v" and adding "-es", such as "hoof" ("hoofs" or "hooves") or "staff" ("staffs" or "staves"). For some words, the preferred form depends on usage; the plural of "dwarf" is "dwarfs" when referring to short real people and "dwarves" when referring to a race in fantasy literature.
   • It is helpful to consult a dictionary if you aren't sure whether you need to convert the "-f" to a "-v".
7. Be aware of mutated plurals. Mutated plurals have irregular plural forms. For example, “children” is the plural of “child” and “women” is the plural of “woman.”
   • Latin and Greek words are another form of mutated plurals. These nouns maintain their Latin and Greek form when they are plural. For example, "criterion" or "phenomenon" form their plurals by dropping the "-on" and adding an "-a" ("criteria", "phenomena").
   • Other unusual plurals include "mice" (plural of "mouse"), "geese" (plural of "goose"), and "feet" (plural of "foot"). "Sheep" and "moose" are the same as singular or plural nouns in English.
8. Be aware of collective nouns. Collective nouns are singular when they refer to a group and plural when they refer to an individual. Some common collective nouns are “group,” “staff,” “team,” family,” “audience,” committee.” Staff is singular in this sentence because the the group is acting as a unit: “The staff is very satisfied.” Staff is plural in this sentence because the sentence is referring to what individuals are doing: “The staff are working in different locations this week.”
   • Names of companies ,organizations and sports teams are considered singular. The sports team, the “Tennessee Titans,” is singular even though there is an “s” on the end.
   • American and British English conventions differ on whether to use plural verbs with collective nouns. American English usually uses singular verbs with collective nouns, such as "The crowd is going wild for this team." British English may use a singular or plural verb with collective nouns, such as "The crowd are going wild for this team."

Making a Word Show Possession

1. Form the possessive of a common or proper singular noun by adding an apostrophe followed by an "s." This rule can be applied to all singular nouns, whether they end in "s" or not. For example, "Agnes's book," "Mary's book," and "the dog's toy" all follow this rule.
2. Form the possessive of a plural noun by adding an apostrophe. If the word ends in an "s," add an apostrophe after the "s." If the word does not end in an "s," add an apostrophe followed by an "s." If you want to make an irregular plural noun possessive, you need to add an apostrophe followed by an “s.”
   • The possessive form of "lions" would be "lions' ", while the possessive form of "children" would be "children's", as in "The children's toys fell into the lions' den at the zoo."
3. Form the possessive of a personal pronoun without using an apostrophe. The correct forms of the third person singular "he", "she" or "it" are "his", "hers" and "its", without apostrophes. The correct form of the first person "I" is "my" if the item possessed is named and "mine" if it isn't. Similarly, the possessive forms of the first person plural "we" are "our" and "ours", respectively; for "you", they are "your" and "yours", respectively; and for "they", they are "their" and "theirs", respectively.
4. Form the possessive of compound nouns carefully. The placement of an apostrophe is different when the nouns act separately or together. In this sentence, the compound nouns are acting separately: “Jane’s and John’s bikes are in the garage.” Both Jane and John have their own bike in the garage. In this sentence the compound nouns are acting collectively: “John and Jane’s bike is in the garage.” This sentence indicates that John and Jane share possession of a bike.
   • Just think if the entities share ownership over what they possess, then they also share the apostrophe. If they own separate things, then they each need their own apostrophe.
   • While the first component in a compound noun, such as "daughter-in-law" or "attorney general", may pluralize the first word in the compound, the possessive is always appended to the last word in the compound, as in "daughter-in-law's" or “attorney general’s.”
   • In the case of the plural possessive, it would be acceptable to write "daughters-in-law's" or "attorneys general's", but it would be less confusing to show possession with a prepositional phrase, such as "of my daughters-in-law" or "of the attorneys general."

Tips

• Always consult a dictionary if you are confused about the plural form of a word.
• You should proofread your work to make sure you are using the right forms of words.If you habitually write the plural forms when you should write the possessive forms, look for words ending in "-s" or "-es" to see if an apostrophe is necessary. If, instead, you habitually use the possessive forms when you should write the plural forms, look at each apostrophe to see if its use is justified.

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Sources and Citations

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