Possessive Noun Examples, Rules & Definition

What is a possessive noun?

Possessive nouns are a common way to show ownership or belonging in the English language. These are formed by adding an apostrophe plus ‘-s’ to the end of a word. For example, “John’s car” tells us who owns the car – John does!

Possessive nouns can be tricky because it’s not always obvious when they should be used. We’ll go over some common ones below so you can avoid any confusion in your next sentence!

Rules of Possessive Noun

In most cases, an apostrophe + ‘-s’ is used on either singular or plural possessives with some exceptions where only an apostrophe needs to be added if it already ends in ‘s’. For example, think about how you would say “the boy’s pencil snapped” which can also be rephrased as “a pencil belonging to that particular boy”.

Let’s see another example,

You use the apostrophe (‘) to show possession.
For example, if I say, “The cat’s ball,” then the ball belongs to the cat.
If I say, “The girl’s toy,” then the toy belongs to the girl.

Words	Possessive Noun	Singular/Plural
Horse	Horse’s	Singular (not ending in ‘s’)
Horses	Horses’	Plural (ending in ‘s’)
Smiths	Smiths’	Singular (ending in ‘s’)
People	People’s	Plural (not ending in ‘s’)
My	My bike is old.	Singular (Possessive Pronoun)
Theirs	The house is theirs.	Plural (Possessive Pronoun)

Possessive Noun Examples

1. The dog’s bone.
2. My sister’s phone.
3. Their house.
4. John and his wife’s car.
5. The cat’s litter box.
6. Her favorite color, purple.
7. The cat’s tail.
8. The dog’s bone.
9. My sister’s hair.
10. Your mother’s dress.
11. His father’s car.
12. Her best friend’s phone number.
13. His grandmother’s house.
14. Her daughter’s new dress.
15. Their vacation to Paris.
16. Your parents’ anniversary party.
17. The dog’s tail wagged when he saw me.
18. Jim’s sandwich.
19. Bob’s dog.
20. Alice’s pie.
21. Simon’s bike.
22. I love my mum’s cooking.
23. I like my sister’s new dress.
24. I like my teacher’s jokes.
25. This is my story.
26. It’s time for us to go.
27. My story starts with me.
28. This is my new dress.
29. This is his house.
30. My sister’s bike.
31. The man’s hat.
32. The cat’s toy.
33. Our aunt’s car.
34. My cousin’s house.

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Read also

• Possessive Nouns, Inanimate Nouns
• Singular and Plural Nouns
• Types of Noun with Examples
• Regular and Irregular Nouns
• Material Nouns
• Abstract Nouns
• Common Nouns
• Proper Nouns
• Countable and Uncountable Nouns