What is plural and possessive?

Answer 1

A plural noun or pronoun is a word for two or more people, places, or things. For example:

• one car, two cars
• one rabbit, two rabbits
• one person, two people
• Jim, he or him
• Jane, she or her
• Jim and Jane, they or them

A possessive noun or pronoun is a word that shows something in the sentence belongs to that noun or pronoun.

A possessive noun is shown by adding an 's to the end of a noun or just an ' after plural nouns already ending in -s. Examples:

• the car of my mother = my mother's car
• the teacher of our class = our class's teacher
• the coats of the children = the children's coats
• the covers of the books = the books' covers
• the meeting of the bosses = the bosses' meeting

The possessive is also used as a shorthand for something that does not literally belong to that person or thing, it's used in place of 'of' or 'for'. Examples:

• The ladies' room does not belong to ladies, it means that it is designated for the use of ladies.
• A store that sells men's suits doesn't sell suits that belong to some men, it sells suits for men.
• A book of Shakespeare's plays are not plays that belong to Mr. Shakespeare, they are plays written by him.

There are two types of pronoun that show possession, a possessive pronoun and a possessive adjective.

A possessive pronoun takes the place of a noun that belongs to someone or something.

The possessive pronouns are: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs

Example: The house on the corner is ours.

A possessive adjectivedescribes a noun as belonging to someone or something. A possessive adjective is placed just before the noun it describes.

The possessive adjectives are: my, your, his, her, our, their, its.

Example: Our house is on the corner.

Answer 2

Plural and possessive usually refers to a noun that is both owned by someone (possessive) and there is more than one of that noun (plural). For example, "the dogs' toys" - "dogs" is plural and the toys belong to them (possessive).