EXERCISE 8. MAKE THE FOLLOWING NOUNS PLURAL.SAMPLE

3. children’s money The possessive noun children’s shows that the money belongs

to the children.

Note that a possessive noun can help us express ourselves in fewer words. For exam-

ple, we can say the children’s money (two words) instead of the money belonging to the

children (five words).

Why does the apostrophe come before the s in examples 1 and 3,

above, but after the s in example 2?

Over the centuries, English has developed three rules for using the

apostrophe to show possession.

SINGULAR NOUN

APOSTROPHE AND

the eyes of the baby becomes the baby’s eyes

the whiskers of the cat becomes the cat’s whiskers

the novels by Dickens becomes Dickens’s novels