10 Possessive case of Nouns

There are rules for forming the possessive case of nouns. Many non-native speakers of English encounter certain difficulties when they use nouns in the possessive case. The rules are discussed below:

1. Rule one:
To form a possessive case of a noun, you simply add apostrophe and 's' e.g. I saw the girl's uncle.

2. Rule two:
When the noun is an inanimate noun, avoid the use of apostrophe and 's' e.g. The table's leg is broken (informal). Instead you say: The leg of the table is broken.

3. Rule three:
If the noun is a plural ending with an 's', do not add 's' with the apostrophe sign, just put only the sign e.g. I saw the girls' father yesterday.

4. Rule four:
If the noun comes at the end of the sentence, still add the apostrophe and 's' e.g. That man is a friend of John's. (not that man is a friend of John).

5. Rule five:
In abstract nouns ending with 'ss' or 'ce', add only the apostrophe sign e.g. We should be happy to suffer for righteousness' sake. For silence' sake, the  boy walked away.

6. Rule six:
For names ending with 's' e.g. James, Jones, etc, the apostrophe sign and 's' should be put. For example: James's father, Jones's aunty, etc.

7. Rule seven:
If the word is a compound word, add apostrophe and 's' to the last word in the compound e.g., He sat on his class teacher's table. Note, if in a compound where we have two nouns whereby the first noun is qualifying the second, add the apostrophe and 's' to the first noun e.g. Grace Lawson collected the subject's prize.

8. Rule eight:
NOTE THESE!– women's liberation not 'women libration', women's studies not 'women studies', womenswear not 'women's wear', menswear not 'men's wear', women folk not women's folk'.

9. Rule nine:
Note these phrases: A week's time as in: I will see you in a week's time; a year's time, etc. Also note the use of else in a possessive form as in: Somebody else's book.

10. Rule ten:
Another expression that many speakers misuse is Students' Union. It's NOT *Student's Union* as often mistakenly used. It can also be used as Student Union. Finally, note the use of Parent-Teachers' Association (NOT Parents' Teachers' Association nor Parent Teachers' Association). A hyphen is put between Parent and Teacher and no apostrophe is used.

In the next article we are going to write about Collocations in English.

Singularity and plurality in Nouns

A singular noun has one number while a plural noun has more than one number. There are about six ways of forming plural nouns. These ways are discussed below.

– By adding "s" or "es" to the singular nouns
Examples:
Singular         Plural
Clock           clooks
Book            books
Train            trains
Table           tables
Cargo          cargoes
Mango         mangoes
Glass          glasses

Please note the following plural nouns ending with 'o':
Singular              Plural
Manifesto        manifestos
Motto                  mottos
Buffalo               buffalos
Commando     commandos
Piano                    pianos

Note: Some nouns that end with letters "O", " Ch", "S" etc. form their plural by the additional "es".

– By adding " en", or "ren" to the singular nouns
Singular         Plural
Child             children
Ox                    oxen
Brother         brethren

– By the changing of a vowel of the singular nouns
Singular         Plural
Tooth            teeth
Louse            lice
Mouse         mice
Man              men
Foot             feet
Goose         geese

– By changing letter "y" in the nouns to "ies"
Singular           Plural
Lady                ladies
Body               bodies
Fly.                    flies
Duty                duties
Army               armies
Reply               replies

– By changing "f" to "ves"
Singular          Plural
Thief              thieves  
Leaf                leaves
Life                  lives
Knife              knives
Wolf               wolves
Elf                   elves

Note: 'chief' does not become 'chieves'. You just simply add 's'- 'chiefs'.
'Handkerchief', 'dwarf', 'scarf', and 'hoof' can become plural either by adding 's' or 'ves'.

– By not changing the singular nouns (problematic nouns)
There are some nouns that don't take "s", " es", or anything to form their plural forms. Their spellings remain the same for both singular and plural forms. I call such nouns the problematic nouns. Examples:
Singular            Plural
Deer                  deer
*Fish                 fish(es)
Sheep               sheep
Furniture         furniture
Traffic               traffic
*Staff                  staff
Luggage           luggage (British)
Baggage           baggage (American)
*Property            property
Information      information
Equipment        equipment
*Damage            damage
Environment    environment

Note this: Bag and baggage (not bags and baggage nor bags and baggages)

Note that some of the words listed above can takes 's' in some specific cases.
For instance:
The members of clergy are respected.

* 'Fish' will be 'fishes' if we are referring to different species/types, such as tilapia fish, cat fish, electric fish, etc. For example: my mother bought ten tilapia fish from the market today; last week, she bought five fishes which included: tilapia, electric and cat.

*  'Clergy' will be clergies if we refer to different religions or denominations.

*  'Property' can be 'properties' if we mean 'characteristics' or 'features'. In legal parlance, we can also have properties.

*  'Damage' can be used in two forms. When we use it to mean demolition or destruction, note that the plural form does not take "es".
Example:
– The damages done by the flood are unspeakable. (Wrong)
– The damage done by the flood are unspeakable. (Correct)

The word will only take 'es':
  When used as third person singular verb such as:
– A baby damages fragile objects while growing up.

  When used to mean a certain amount of money ordered by a law court to be paid to somebody for an offence committed.
– Some damages were paid to the family of the victims.

Note that when we want to quantify some of the nouns in the table above, we use 'piece'. For instance:
– A piece of equipment
– Two pieces of equipment
– A piece of furniture
– Ten pieces of furniture.

We can also use 'member' for some of the nouns in the table above. For instance:
– The members of the clergy are respected.
– A member of staff.
– Five members of staff.

Note that we can also use 'staffers', but in American English. We can add 's' to 'staff' when we mean staff members of different groups or organizations. For instance:
– All the schools and their staffs were well represented at the meeting.
– All the law makers and their staffs are corrupt.

In the next article we are going to write about possessive case of Nouns.