Possession in English

There are multiple ways to express Possession in English. Take a look at the following 5 sentences, each of which are using possession:

Henry’s bikes.

My friends’ bikes.

Thomas’s bikes.

We have a transportation system.

The people of Los Angeles.

Notice how the first phrase uses an apostrophe + s, the second phrase uses an apostrophe after the s, the third phrase added an apostrophe + another s, the fourth phrase uses no apostrophe + s, and the fifth phrase uses the preposition “of” for expressing possession. So, why is this? And how do we properly use possession in English? That’s what we are going to take a look at today!

Apostrophe + “s” (‘s)

So, we use apostrophe + “s” for showing possession of people (in most cases) in singular. That is, the person we express the possession of should be a singular noun, and not a plural noun. Let’s take a closer look at the example from the beginning:

Henry’s bikes.

Here, the noun is both a person and singular, “Henry”, and the noun being possessed is a thing, “bikes”. So, the singular noun, “Henry” is “possessing” the thing, “bikes”, therefore, we need to use an apostrophe + “s”. This would also be true for:

Mike’s car.
My sister’s computer.
Their uncle’s television.
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And don’t say, for example:

The car of Mike.
The computer of my sister.
The television of their uncle.
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Quite frankly, doing this doesn’t sound great, and it is far better to use the apostrophe + “s” when expressing possession of people. Try not to use the preposition “of” in these cases.

Possession of things

When the noun (generally people, but also for things) of which you are expressing possession happens to be plural, and not singular, for example, “my friends’ bikes”, then you need to insert an apostrophe after the “s”. This might be a little strange, but this is how we do it! For instance, in:

My friends’ bikes.

The noun here is “friends”, and it’s plural. There could be two, three, or even more friends, but definitely more than one. Therefore, we need to insert the apostrophe after the “s” to show possession of a plural noun. More example like this:

My brothers’ toys are broken = more than one brother.
His houses’ gardens are beautiful = more than one house.
The plants’ leaves look green! = more than one plant.

When it comes to speaking, the pronunciation is the same whether you are expressing possession of a singular or plural noun, so nobody will notice. Nevertheless, in written English, to show possession of plural nouns, you will need to use an apostrophe after the “s”. We use the “s” to make the noun plural. For example,

My brother’s = singular.
My brothers’ = plural.

Then, if you want to make the aforementioned phrases plural for both singular and plural respectively, you would say:

My brother’s car = one brother.
My brothers’ car = more than one brother.

Possession of nouns ending in “s”

When the noun ends in the letter “s”, for example, “James”, “Thomas”, “Torres” or “Flores”, you need to add an apostrophe + another “s” to make these nouns plural. For example, in the introduction we had:

Thomas’s bikes.

Here, “Thomas” is a noun which already ends in the letter “s”, so, we need to add an apostrophe + “s” to show possession. In this case, “Thomas” is possessing the noun “bikes”. A few more examples,

I like Flores’s books.
James’s building is big.
Luis’s city is so beautiful.

It doesn’t matter the origin of the name, for example, “Luis” and “Flores” are of Spanish origin, while “James” is an English name. When speaking English, you need to apply this rule. That is, insert an apostrophe + “s”.

Possession of things

Generally speaking, however, not in all cases, when you are expressing possession of things, such as, for example, “a door”, “a shop” or “a metro”, we tend to show possession of said nouns simply by having the two nouns next to each other, sort of like a compound noun. Although, there’s some ambiguity or gray areas to this rule, generally, this is how it’s done. For instance, in our example from the introduction,

We have a transportation system.

Here, you wouldn’t say,

We have a transportation’s system = INCORRECT.

Because “transportation” is a thing, and it’s to just have the two nouns together without using “of” or “apostrophe + s”. A few more examples,

The shop door is blue.
We suffered a spider bite.
My car windows are broken.

Here, you wouldn’t say,

The shop’s door is blue.
We suffered a spider’s bite.
My car’s windows are broken.

Because, generally speaking, we just use a sort of compound noun to show possession of things. However, if said nouns are plural, such as from a previous example, then you indeed apply an “s”, for instance,

The shops’ doors are blue = more than one shop.
My cars’ windows are broken = more than one car.

Possession using “of”

Last but not least, we use the preposition “of” when expressing possession of things which are historically important or significant, or have a somewhat high status. In our previous example,

The people of Los Angeles.

Whether you are talking about the people of Los Angeles, India, Nigeria, China etc., it doesn’t matter, the people of a city or country are considered significant, and so we use “of” to express possession. On the contrary, you would not say, for instance,

Los Angeles’s people = INCORRECT.

Let’s take a closer look at a few more examples,

The government of India.
The king of England.
The people of Thailand.

And not,

India’s government.
England’s king.
Thailand’s people.

Although these phrases (not using “of”) are not outright incorrect, they don’t sound very good because, culturally, “government”, “king” and “people” are significant either historically speaking or presently, and therefore, we use “of” between the two nouns.

This rule can sometimes be a little subjective because, subjectively, one may consider something or someone to be very important or significant, so you have some leeway when applying this rule. For example, you might say,

The house of my family = given more importance or significance.
My family’s house = given less importance or significance.

So, as you can see, in some cases, when showing possession of the people of a country, famous landmarks etc, you would use “of” and in cases where there is no real significance, you would not use “of”. However, like we said, feel free to use “of” if something is very important to you. For example, in,

The restaurant of my father = more important and significant.
My father’s restaurant = less important and not so significant.

That being said, try not to fall into bad habits, and only use “of” when it’s needed.