This seems to be the new fashionable grammatical error so thought I'd share this:
Introduction
The correct use of plural and possessive forms may seem like a minor issue. Among educated persons, however, incorrect forms, especially misuses of apostrophes, stand out like red flags. One area executive has said he will not hire an applicant whose letter or resume includes such an error.
This section presents the rules for forming the plural and possessive forms of nouns, then offers a tutorial with feedback.
Section Outline NOTE: This section is short. You may simply want to scroll through the rules before trying the tutorial.
Plural forms
Simple (Hodges' 18d5)
Nouns ending in s, z, ch, sh, x
Nouns ending in o
Words ending in Y
Irregular plural forms
Plural forms and the apostrophe (Bedford 36e)
Possessive forms (Bedford 36/Hodges' 15a)
Singular
Plural
Compound nouns
Tutorial
Plural forms
The plural form of a noun indicates simply that there are more than one of the person or thing in question. For most nouns, the plural form includes the letter "s" at the end of the word:
Dogs
Trees
Turtles
Nouns ending in s, z, ch, sh, and x
Nouns with these letters at the end call for an "es" in the plural form. This added syllable makes pronunciation easier.
beaches
foxes
wishes
Nouns ending in o
Some nouns ending in o are pluralized with an "s," while others call for "es." These words must be memorized, because there is no simple rule to explain the differences.
echoes heroes potatoes vetoes
autos memos pimentos pros
Source: Hodges' Harbrace Handbook, 13th edition
Nouns ending in y
To form the plural of nouns ending in y, drop the y and add "ies."
Family becomes families
Story becomes stories
Baby becomes babies
Irregular plural forms
There are several other irregularities in the plural forms of English nouns. Here are examples:
Man becomes men
Woman becomes women
Fungus becomes fungi
Thief becomes thieves (note that not all words ending in "f" follow this patttern: roof/roofs)
Species remains species
Medium becomes media
Person becomes people
Plural forms and the apostrophe (Bedford 36/Hodges')
A common error is to form the plural of a noun by adding "'s" to the singular form. Try to get out the habit of doing this. A trick for remembering that the apostrophe signifies the plural is that possessive means "having," and so the posessive form of the word "has" an apostrophe. How do you tell the difference in between plural and possessive? Check the meaning of the sentence. Does the noun simply refer to more than one thing? Or does the sentence mention something that belongs to the noun?
Although usage has changed in recent years, some handbooks call for an apostrophe in the plural forms of numbers, letters, and words used as words:
How many 1's do we have in the line?
We put x's on the incorrect answers.
The no's resounded loudly throughout the chamber.
Return to outline
Possessive forms (Bedford 36a/Hodges' 15a)
A possessive form of a noun signifies that the noun owns something:
A musician's talent
A woman's ambition
Possessive forms call for a properly placed apostrophe. The placement is different for singular and plural nouns. For this reason, you must know the correct singular and possessive nouns before you can make them possessive.
Singular possessive
The possessive form of a singular noun is an apostrophe followed by the letter "s."
Kramer's hair
Daphne's patience
the car's engine
Words ending with s, z or x generally omit the "s."
Dr. Seuss' sense of humor
Plural possessive
In order to place the apostrophe correctly in plural nouns, you must first be certain of the plural form. If you have questions about these forms, you may want to browse the section on plural nouns above.
For plural nouns ending in "s," add only an apostrophe:
Singers' voices
The cousins' favorite uncle
For plural nouns not ending in "s," add an apostrophe and "s."
Men's clothing
Children's books
Compound nouns (Bedford 36/Hodges' 15a3)
When a sentence indicates joint ownership in a compound construction, the possessive form is attached only to the second noun:
Deanna and Brandi's vacation plans
Tim and Bethany's wedding invitation
Note that individual ownership is marked by a double possessive:
Courtney's and Mem's grade point averages
Tim and Bethany share the same wedding invitation, whereas Courtney and Mem each have their own grade point averages.
Return to outline
Tutorial
Click on the correct plural/possessive form.
1. Her family's/families guest house accommodates 20 people.
2. The singers/singer's agreed to dress in black.
3. Three families/family's rented an oceanfront villa.
4. Can you see my sisters/sister's car in the driveway?
5. Four critics'/critics recommended the book.
6. Society's/Societies' definition of gender roles has changed.
7. After the triplets were born, our house was filled with baby's/babies' cries.
8. Cara and Susan's/Cara's and Susan's project impressed the professor.
9. The women's/womens' former neighbor dropped by to visit.
10. Not all children's/childrens' shows are violent.
11. Do all of your wishes/wishes' come true?
12. Can a novel really have two different heroes/heros?
13. Water the trees/tree's, but not every day.
14. The sound of horses' hoofs/hooves rattled the glass.
15. You must consider other's/others' feelings before embarassing them for an easy laugh.
1. Her family's/families guest house accommodates 20 people.
Correct answer: family's
This is the singular possessive form. It describes the guest house owned by one family. Families is the plural form of family.
Return to questions
2. The singers/singer's agreed to dress in black.
Correct answer: singers
Singers serves as the plural subject of this sentence. Singer's is the singular possessive form. A correct usage is as follows:
The singer's voice has an unusual range.
Return to questions
3. Three families/family's rented an oceanfront villa.
Correct answer: families
Families is the plural subject of the sentence. The incorrect choice is the singular possessive form. It can modify an object that belongs to one family, as in the family's beach house mentioned in question 1.
Return to questions
4. Can you see my sisters/sister's car in the driveway?
Correct answer: sister's
The correct choice is the singular possessive form. It describes the car belonging to one sister. Sisters with no apostrophe is the plural form.
Return to questions
5. Four critics'/critics recommended the book.
Correct answer: critics
This sentence calls for a plural subject, not a possessive form. The apostrophe in critics' suggests that this is a possessive form. It is the incorrect choice because the sentence does not refer to anything owned by the critics.
Return to questions
6. Society's/Societies' definition of gender roles has changed.
Correct answer: Society's
The correct form is the singular possessive, while the incorrect form is the plural possessive. The plural form does not make sense logically, because there is only one definition.
Return to questions
7. After the triplets were born, our house was filled with baby's/babies' cries.
Correct answer: babies'
The mention of triplets suggests that there is more than one baby crying in the house. For this reason, the plural possessive form babies' is correct.
Return to questions
8. Cara and Susan's/Cara's and Susan's project impressed the professor.
Correct answer: Cara and Susan's
A compound subject that shows joint ownership of an object calls for one apostrophe after the second subject. The first part of the compound subject remains in the subjective case, with no apostrophe. If Cara and Susan had done separate projects, it would be correct to refer to them as "Cara's and Susan's projects."
Return to questions
9. The women's/womens' former neighbor dropped by to visit.
Correct answer: women's
When choosing the plural possessive form of any noun, determine the plural form first. The singular noun woman becomes women. (It is a common error to use women for both singular and plural. To avoid this error, consider the singular form man and its plural, men.)
After you have formed the plural, use the rules to determine the correct placement of the apostrophe. Women does not end in "s," so its plural form calls for an apostrophe followed by "s."
Return to questions
10. Not all children's/childrens' shows are violent.
Correct answer: children's
Like man and woman, children takes an irregular plural form. Because its plural form does not end in the letter "s," an "s" must be added after the apostrophe. Although the plural form is irregular, the possessive form follows the standard rules.
Return to questions
11. Do all of your wishes/wishes' come true?
Correct answer: wishes
This is a plural form. There is no need for a possessive in this sentence, because nothing belongs to the wishes.
Return to questions
12. Can a novel really have two different heroes/heros?
Correct answer: heroes
Heroes is the plural form of the noun hero. It follows the rule that calls for the addition of "es" to nouns ending in an "o" preceded by a consonant. The Hodges' Harbrace Handbook (18d5) illustrates some exceptions to this rule.
Return to questions
13. Water the trees/tree's, but not every day.
Correct answer: trees
There is nothing unusual about the plural form of tree. This sentence refers to multiple trees, not to anything belonging to them.
Return to questions
14. The sound of horses' hoofs/hooves rattled the glass.
Correct answer: hooves
With a few exceptions, the plural form of nouns ending in "f" is "es." One exception is roof/roofs.
Return to questions
15. You must consider other's/others' feelings before embarassing them for an easy laugh.
Correct answer: others'
The pronoun them which appears later in the sentence indicates that the feelings of more than one person are being discussed. The apostrophe of the plural possessive form is added to the end of the plural form.
End of tutorial
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Introduction
The correct use of plural and possessive forms may seem like a minor issue. Among educated persons, however, incorrect forms, especially misuses of apostrophes, stand out like red flags. One area executive has said he will not hire an applicant whose letter or resume includes such an error.
This section presents the rules for forming the plural and possessive forms of nouns, then offers a tutorial with feedback.
Section Outline NOTE: This section is short. You may simply want to scroll through the rules before trying the tutorial.
Plural forms
Simple (Hodges' 18d5)
Nouns ending in s, z, ch, sh, x
Nouns ending in o
Words ending in Y
Irregular plural forms
Plural forms and the apostrophe (Bedford 36e)
Possessive forms (Bedford 36/Hodges' 15a)
Singular
Plural
Compound nouns
Tutorial
Plural forms
The plural form of a noun indicates simply that there are more than one of the person or thing in question. For most nouns, the plural form includes the letter "s" at the end of the word:
Dogs
Trees
Turtles
Nouns ending in s, z, ch, sh, and x
Nouns with these letters at the end call for an "es" in the plural form. This added syllable makes pronunciation easier.
beaches
foxes
wishes
Nouns ending in o
Some nouns ending in o are pluralized with an "s," while others call for "es." These words must be memorized, because there is no simple rule to explain the differences.
echoes heroes potatoes vetoes
autos memos pimentos pros
Source: Hodges' Harbrace Handbook, 13th edition
Nouns ending in y
To form the plural of nouns ending in y, drop the y and add "ies."
Family becomes families
Story becomes stories
Baby becomes babies
Irregular plural forms
There are several other irregularities in the plural forms of English nouns. Here are examples:
Man becomes men
Woman becomes women
Fungus becomes fungi
Thief becomes thieves (note that not all words ending in "f" follow this patttern: roof/roofs)
Species remains species
Medium becomes media
Person becomes people
Plural forms and the apostrophe (Bedford 36/Hodges')
A common error is to form the plural of a noun by adding "'s" to the singular form. Try to get out the habit of doing this. A trick for remembering that the apostrophe signifies the plural is that possessive means "having," and so the posessive form of the word "has" an apostrophe. How do you tell the difference in between plural and possessive? Check the meaning of the sentence. Does the noun simply refer to more than one thing? Or does the sentence mention something that belongs to the noun?
Although usage has changed in recent years, some handbooks call for an apostrophe in the plural forms of numbers, letters, and words used as words:
How many 1's do we have in the line?
We put x's on the incorrect answers.
The no's resounded loudly throughout the chamber.
Return to outline
Possessive forms (Bedford 36a/Hodges' 15a)
A possessive form of a noun signifies that the noun owns something:
A musician's talent
A woman's ambition
Possessive forms call for a properly placed apostrophe. The placement is different for singular and plural nouns. For this reason, you must know the correct singular and possessive nouns before you can make them possessive.
Singular possessive
The possessive form of a singular noun is an apostrophe followed by the letter "s."
Kramer's hair
Daphne's patience
the car's engine
Words ending with s, z or x generally omit the "s."
Dr. Seuss' sense of humor
Plural possessive
In order to place the apostrophe correctly in plural nouns, you must first be certain of the plural form. If you have questions about these forms, you may want to browse the section on plural nouns above.
For plural nouns ending in "s," add only an apostrophe:
Singers' voices
The cousins' favorite uncle
For plural nouns not ending in "s," add an apostrophe and "s."
Men's clothing
Children's books
Compound nouns (Bedford 36/Hodges' 15a3)
When a sentence indicates joint ownership in a compound construction, the possessive form is attached only to the second noun:
Deanna and Brandi's vacation plans
Tim and Bethany's wedding invitation
Note that individual ownership is marked by a double possessive:
Courtney's and Mem's grade point averages
Tim and Bethany share the same wedding invitation, whereas Courtney and Mem each have their own grade point averages.
Return to outline
Tutorial
Click on the correct plural/possessive form.
1. Her family's/families guest house accommodates 20 people.
2. The singers/singer's agreed to dress in black.
3. Three families/family's rented an oceanfront villa.
4. Can you see my sisters/sister's car in the driveway?
5. Four critics'/critics recommended the book.
6. Society's/Societies' definition of gender roles has changed.
7. After the triplets were born, our house was filled with baby's/babies' cries.
8. Cara and Susan's/Cara's and Susan's project impressed the professor.
9. The women's/womens' former neighbor dropped by to visit.
10. Not all children's/childrens' shows are violent.
11. Do all of your wishes/wishes' come true?
12. Can a novel really have two different heroes/heros?
13. Water the trees/tree's, but not every day.
14. The sound of horses' hoofs/hooves rattled the glass.
15. You must consider other's/others' feelings before embarassing them for an easy laugh.
1. Her family's/families guest house accommodates 20 people.
Correct answer: family's
This is the singular possessive form. It describes the guest house owned by one family. Families is the plural form of family.
Return to questions
2. The singers/singer's agreed to dress in black.
Correct answer: singers
Singers serves as the plural subject of this sentence. Singer's is the singular possessive form. A correct usage is as follows:
The singer's voice has an unusual range.
Return to questions
3. Three families/family's rented an oceanfront villa.
Correct answer: families
Families is the plural subject of the sentence. The incorrect choice is the singular possessive form. It can modify an object that belongs to one family, as in the family's beach house mentioned in question 1.
Return to questions
4. Can you see my sisters/sister's car in the driveway?
Correct answer: sister's
The correct choice is the singular possessive form. It describes the car belonging to one sister. Sisters with no apostrophe is the plural form.
Return to questions
5. Four critics'/critics recommended the book.
Correct answer: critics
This sentence calls for a plural subject, not a possessive form. The apostrophe in critics' suggests that this is a possessive form. It is the incorrect choice because the sentence does not refer to anything owned by the critics.
Return to questions
6. Society's/Societies' definition of gender roles has changed.
Correct answer: Society's
The correct form is the singular possessive, while the incorrect form is the plural possessive. The plural form does not make sense logically, because there is only one definition.
Return to questions
7. After the triplets were born, our house was filled with baby's/babies' cries.
Correct answer: babies'
The mention of triplets suggests that there is more than one baby crying in the house. For this reason, the plural possessive form babies' is correct.
Return to questions
8. Cara and Susan's/Cara's and Susan's project impressed the professor.
Correct answer: Cara and Susan's
A compound subject that shows joint ownership of an object calls for one apostrophe after the second subject. The first part of the compound subject remains in the subjective case, with no apostrophe. If Cara and Susan had done separate projects, it would be correct to refer to them as "Cara's and Susan's projects."
Return to questions
9. The women's/womens' former neighbor dropped by to visit.
Correct answer: women's
When choosing the plural possessive form of any noun, determine the plural form first. The singular noun woman becomes women. (It is a common error to use women for both singular and plural. To avoid this error, consider the singular form man and its plural, men.)
After you have formed the plural, use the rules to determine the correct placement of the apostrophe. Women does not end in "s," so its plural form calls for an apostrophe followed by "s."
Return to questions
10. Not all children's/childrens' shows are violent.
Correct answer: children's
Like man and woman, children takes an irregular plural form. Because its plural form does not end in the letter "s," an "s" must be added after the apostrophe. Although the plural form is irregular, the possessive form follows the standard rules.
Return to questions
11. Do all of your wishes/wishes' come true?
Correct answer: wishes
This is a plural form. There is no need for a possessive in this sentence, because nothing belongs to the wishes.
Return to questions
12. Can a novel really have two different heroes/heros?
Correct answer: heroes
Heroes is the plural form of the noun hero. It follows the rule that calls for the addition of "es" to nouns ending in an "o" preceded by a consonant. The Hodges' Harbrace Handbook (18d5) illustrates some exceptions to this rule.
Return to questions
13. Water the trees/tree's, but not every day.
Correct answer: trees
There is nothing unusual about the plural form of tree. This sentence refers to multiple trees, not to anything belonging to them.
Return to questions
14. The sound of horses' hoofs/hooves rattled the glass.
Correct answer: hooves
With a few exceptions, the plural form of nouns ending in "f" is "es." One exception is roof/roofs.
Return to questions
15. You must consider other's/others' feelings before embarassing them for an easy laugh.
Correct answer: others'
The pronoun them which appears later in the sentence indicates that the feelings of more than one person are being discussed. The apostrophe of the plural possessive form is added to the end of the plural form.
End of tutorial
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