Grammar Power

I can show respect for my readers and for my own ideas by writing in formal American English.

Overview
Things or qualities can belong to nouns. Nouns are marked for possession either by use of an apostrophe (for most plural nouns and nouns that end in s) or an apostrophe s (s) for all other nouns. The substitute for a noun in a sentence is a called a pronoun. There is a normal set of pronouns to substitute for nouns, and there is a special set of pronouns to show possession. Possessive pronouns NEVER take an apostrophe. Unfortunately, some of them are confusing because they are extremely similar to words that have nothing whatsoever to do with them.

You know this rabbit.

Its Bugs Bunny, and that is the rabbits carrot, or Bugss carrot. Its his carrot; the carrot belongs to him.
I put an extra s after the apostrophe, even though the name Bugs ends in an s. This is a judgment call, but it ONLY pertains to proper nouns (names). I do it because thats how its spoken aloud.

What about these . . . ladies?

They are lifting their skirts the ladies skirts. The skirts belong to them.
To mark a plural noun for possession, form the normal plural (usually either with an s or by changing a y to an ies) and then put the apostrophe after it. If you say this word aloud, it sounds different from Bugss.

Irregular plural formation

If you want to call them women instead of ladies, you need an s: the womens skirts.

The word woman, like the words man, child and (usually) person, is not marked as plural by adding an s. So you just mark their plural forms for possession by adding an s, the same way you would for the singular form.

This bird has no gender.

It does have a beanie, however. That is the birds beanie, or Tweetys beanie. It is its beanie; the beanie belongs to it.

Its is like his, hers or their. It is a possessive pronoun. It never takes an apostrophe.

To apostrophe or not to apostrophe

Noun - apostrophe for possession: Tweetys or the birds

Possessive Pronoun no apostrophe: its

Homophones/Homographs
Homophones are words that sound alike but have different meanings and may be spelled differently. Homographs are words than have the same spelling but different meanings. Its and its are homophones AND homographs. But its is a possessive pronoun, while its is a contraction for the verb phrase it is. Thats why its easy to confuse its and its. Just remember that its is like his and hers. Since youre not using Tweetys name or a regular noun phrase like the bird, its has no apostrophe. Other possessive pronouns have homophones, too.

More homophones with possessive pronouns . . .

Sylvester and Tweety wouldnt normally hang. But right now, theyre reading their books together. The books belong to them.

The two homophones on this slide are theyre (the contraction for they are) and their (the possessive pronoun for them.)

. . . and another homophone . . .

Bugs and Daffy say:
We are riding in our car.
The subject pronoun we and its verb are can be contracted to were; but the possessive pronoun our cannot be in a contraction.

. . . and another . . .
Is the poody-tat here or there? Hes up here now. Soon he will be down there.
An easy way to remember the difference between indicator there and possessive pronoun their is that the indicator there has the indicator here inside it.

And the most important homophone of all . . .

said your favorite Loony Tunes duck in days of yore.

As the old saying goes, Grammar is the difference between knowing your s**t and knowing youre s**t.

What if I want to use their names?

Sylvester and Tweety is a noun phrase. Well get deeper into noun phrases (as well as verb phrases and adjective phrases) later on. For now, all you need to know is that a noun phrase can be marked for possession with ONE apostrophe:

Sylvester and Tweetys adventures.

You can also mark a noun phrase for possession by using the preposition of:

the adventures of Sylvester and Tweety.

In-Class Exercises

1. Annalies thought about ______ knowledge of formal English. 2. _____ more complicated than I thought to figure out ____ ins and outs, she said. 3. All of the student____ brains must work overtime to learn about possessive pronouns. 4. When _________ ready to work on _______ grammar, the topic____ intricacies will no longer befuddle them. 5. The difficulties ___ possessives will disappear, and ____ mystery will change to mastery. 6. Annalies___ grammar power is growing by leaps and bounds.

Summary
Singular nouns and proper nouns, as well as irregularly-formed plural nouns and noun phrases that end in singular nouns, are marked for possession with s. (For proper nouns that end in s, this is a judgment call.) Regularly-formed plural nouns are marked for possession with an apostrophe only. The singular possessive pronouns are my, your, his, her/hers and its. The singular possessive pronoun its is a homophone and a homograph with the contracted verb phrase its. The singular possessive pronoun your is a homophone with the contracted verb phrase youre. The plural possessive pronoun their is a homophone with the indicator there and the contracted verb phrase theyre. The preposition of can also be used to mark a noun or noun phrase for possession.