Commonly Confused:  Plurals and Possessives

 

Here we continue with our unit on possessives.

What's wrong with this sentence?

 My cousins's and I went to play in the garden.

Read below to find out the answer and to learn how to correct it.

Before you begin the activities, you may want to study the initial grammar lesson in this chapter, What Are Possessives?

One of the most common areas in which writing errors occur involves confusing plural forms with possessive forms.

The plural forms of nouns are often confused with the possessive forms of nouns because they sound similiar. They are spelled differently, however, so be careful when you write.

For example, fathers and father's sound alike but notice how their written representation is different. Also, families and family's sound alike but notice that they are also written, that is, spelled, differently.

In the example we began with, what is the difference between cousins and cousin's?

Contrast These!

 

Contrast the bolded words in the examples below and notice differences in spelling and grammatical function:

  • My father's three sisters often come to our house.

In the above sentence, father's is a possessive form of the singular noun father, and sisters is a plural noun (the plural form of the singular noun sister).

  • My grandparents live near the Black Sea; on weekends, we often go to my  grandparents' house.

In the above sentence, grandparents is a plural noun (the plural form of the singular noun grandparent), and grandparents' is the possessive form of the plural noun grandparents.

PROBLEM:   My cousin's and I went to play in the garden.
SOLUTION:  My cousins and I went to play in the garden.


Exercise 7  Place each noun that is in parentheses in its proper form so that it makes sense in the context of the sentence.

Example:  My (mother) _mother's_ face lit up when she saw me.

  1. 1.  My (father) ______ three (sister) _______ came to my house.

    2.  My native (country) ______ biggest social problem is poverty.

    3.  People from other (country) ______ had the same fears as I did.

    4.  The two tennis (player) ________ obeyed both (coach) ______ instructions.

Click here for the answers to this exercise.

Next... More Practice

 

Next, Exercise 6 for more practice with Commonly Confused: Nouns and Possessives

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