SAT® · Reading and Writing: Form, Structure, and Sense — Modifiers, Genitives, and Plurals
Singular Possessive versus Plural Possessive
Apostrophe placement depends only on whether the owner is singular or plural, not on how many things are owned. Build the plural noun first, then add the apostrophe to mark ownership.
An apostrophe before the s means one owner: the dog's leash. An apostrophe after the s means more than one owner sharing that s: the dogs' leash, many dogs, one leash. The test loves to bury the real owner count in a number earlier in the sentence, then ask you to match it. The trick is to ignore everything else and ask one question: how many owners are there, exactly?
Work it in two steps, always in this order. First, write the noun as a plain plural with no apostrophe at all: students, farms, judges. Second, decide if that plural is the owner. If it is, drop the apostrophe in right after the final s, since the s already marks the plural and the apostrophe just adds possession on top of it: students' papers, farms' output. If only one of those nouns owns the thing, you never pluralize it in the first place: the apostrophe goes straight after the singular form, winner's command, with an s added after the apostrophe.
This same two-step habit is what keeps you steady on the irregular plurals that never end in s, like children or women. Since there is no trailing s to tuck the apostrophe behind, plural possession there looks just like singular possession: children's books, women's votes, apostrophe-s regardless of count. The whole topic sits next to subject-verb agreement and modifier placement in this unit because all three ask you to track one noun's real identity, number and role, through a sentence built to distract you from it.
Key terms
- Singular possessive
- Apostrophe plus s added to a one-owner noun, as in winner's.
- Plural possessive
- Apostrophe added after an already-plural noun ending in s, as in students'.
- Irregular plural
- A plural noun that does not end in s, such as children or women.
- Owner noun
- The noun in the sentence that actually possesses the thing being described, regardless of other numbers mentioned.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow do you find the apostrophe's spot by writing the plural first and only then adding ownership?
- Worked exampleWalk me through the apostrophe in 'the students papers' when thirty students each wrote one.
- Going furtherWhat happens when the owner is a plural that never ends in s, like 'children' or 'women'?
Check yourself
End of topic.