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Course: Digital SAT Reading and Writing > Unit 5
Lesson 3: FSS: Plurals and possessivesGrammar guide: Plurals and possessives
A guide to the Standard English conventions surrounding plural and possessive nouns and pronouns
What are plurals and possessives?
Plurals are nouns and pronouns that refer to more than one thing.
Possessives are nouns and pronouns that show possession.
There are similarities and differences in how plurals and possessives are formed that can cause confusion. In particular, confusion can arise over when to use or not use apostrophes.
Incorrect:
- One cannot overstate the importance of bee's to the pollination of Michigans blueberry crop.
Correct:
- One cannot overstate the importance of bees to the pollination of Michigan's blueberry crop.
The formation of plurals and possessives may be tested in one of the Form, structure, and sense questions that you encounter on test day.
How to form plurals and possessives
To succeed on questions about plural and possessive nouns, you'll need to know the rules for using apostrophes in the following cases:
- Plural nouns
- Singular possessive nouns
- Plural possessive nouns
- Pronouns
How to identify questions about plurals and possessives
When we approach form, structure, and sense questions, it's important to identify which Standard English conventions are being tested.
Make sure to look for errors with genitives and plurals if
- the choices add or remove apostrophes
- the choices change the placement of apostrophes
If you don't see one or both of these features, then the question likely doesn't deal with plurals and possessives.
Let's look at a plurals and possessives question now:
Top tips
Check all the nouns
SAT questions that ask us about plural and possessive nouns may include two nouns in the underline. The choices will include variations where one, both, or neither of the two are made plural or possessive.
Be sure that the answer you choose uses (or doesn't use) apostrophes correctly in both nouns.
Beware "its" and "their"
"Its" and "their" follow the same rule as other possessive pronouns: they don't require an apostrophe. However, these pronouns are frequently confused with the contractions "it's" and "they're".
Any time you see a form of "it's/its" or "there/their/they're" appear in the choices, double check that you're using the appropriate form.
Your turn
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- Good morning I found no difference between the foundation , medium and advanced sections, the same explanation and examples, am I right?(26 votes)
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- I think in the first text example there's an error, there are two choices with same sentence! C, and D
''poems putatively written by the novels’ ''
Or can I get more explanation ?(0 votes)- in option c)poems putatively written by the novels’ {here novel(s) plural.}
in option d) poems putatively written by the novel’s {here novel is singular and showing possession}(17 votes)
- So ,I am confused .
Okay, let's consider the words witness.
Is the possesive of witness " witness's " or " witness' "??(1 vote)- Hey there, the possessive of witness would be " witness's " since witness is a singular noun, but the possessive of witnesses is " witnesses' " since witnesses is a plural noun and also ends in s. Don't get confused, you've got this.(7 votes)
- yrywegtuygqtwt6f hybrebhwab yegwahbfhebyewg yegbehwjbhgfy eywgfbhwbfuy(3 votes)
- Hello,
Is the noun being referred to singular? Use a version of "it".
Is the noun being referred to plural? Use a version of "they".
can someone explain these lines to me ? when should we use 'it' and when should we use 'they' ?(3 votes)- When the noun is about 1 item, or 1 only then we use it. otherwise it is they(0 votes)
- Could someone please tell me the difference between PLURAL NOUN and PLURAL POSSESIVE NOUN ?(2 votes)
- hola como esta muy bien es tu lecha(1 vote)
- When the noun is about 1 item, or 1 only then we use it. otherwise it is they(1 vote)