Possessive

An apostrophe (‘) has two uses: to show contractions, where a letter has been omitted, or possession. We already discussed contractions, so our focus here will be on how the apostrophe (‘) can be used to show possession.

When the apostrophe punctuation mark is placed after an “s,” like this “s,” it shows that the subject owns something. It can also be used to show relationships between people.

Take these as examples:

• John’s car is white.
• Mary’s cat is black.

The above examples explain that the car owned by John is white and the cat Mary has as a pet is black.

Examples of an apostrophe showing a relationship between two people are:

• I am Peter’s brother.
• That is James’s father.
• She is Anne’s sister.