Possessive nouns are essential for conveying a sense of ownership or connection in your writing. To truly understand and apply possessive nouns successfully, one must become familiar with their basic principles, the role of apostrophes, and the distinction between plurals and possessives.

Singular nouns are made possessive by adding an apostrophe and an “s” (e.g., “teacher” becomes “the teacher ’s lesson”). Singular nouns that end in “s” follow the same rule (e.g., “the press’s access”). The same rule is followed for plural nouns that do not end in “s,” compound nouns made up of several words, and abbreviations.