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 should not be used with possessive pronouns because possessive pronouns already show possession—they don't need an apostrophe. His, her, its, my, yours, ours are all possessive pronouns. However, indefinite pronouns, such as one, anyone, other, no one, and anybody, can be made possessive.

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.

Tip #1: If two nouns are equally showing possession, only use an apostrophe on the second noun. Tip #2: If two nouns are showing separate ownership, use an apostrophe on both nouns. Tip #3: When using a hyphenated noun, only make the final word of the hyphenated noun possessive.