Possessive apostrophes come at the end of nouns that show ownership (possession) or a close relationship like among family members or body parts. The “owner” noun always precedes the noun it relates to, but any adjective that describes the second noun goes in between the two nouns.

A possessive apostrophe is an apostrophe used in a noun to show that the noun owns something (e.g., woman's hat). More specifically, a possessive apostrophe and the letter s are added to a noun to make the noun possessive.

Apostrophes to show possession are used to create possessive nouns, which show ‘ownership’ or ‘possession’ of something. Using possessive nouns can help to simplify how we say something. Apostrophes to show possession are not used on pronouns.

Apostrophes are used in possessive nouns to indicate that something belongs to something or someone else. To indicate possession with a singular noun, add an apostrophe “s” ’s at the end of the word. This also applies to names and other proper nouns.

The apostrophe symbol (‘) is a handy bit of punctuation that’s used to make a noun possessive (e.g., the cat’s tail) or to show that characters have been omitted, like with contractions (e.g., cannot → can’t) or numbers (e.g., 1995 → ‘95). While apostrophes serve many functions, they have rules, too.