Those pesky pronouns - possessives

For a relatively small group among the parts of speech in English, pronouns cause a great deal of difficulty for writers. The nouns which pronouns replace comprise a a large and ever-growing group. The number of pronouns, on the other hand, is small and static.

While forming noun possessives [discussed in last week's entry] may cause writers some problems, errors involving pronoun possessives are more frequent. The source of the confusion is the difference in how nouns and pronouns form possessives. Nouns use an apostrophe to form possessives, but apostrophes are mostly used with pronouns when forming contractions [an exception occurs in indefinite pronouns, such as anyone, everybody, something].

• With the exception of indefinite pronouns, pronouns do not use an apostrophe to form the possessive.
  

Unlike nouns in English, pronouns have specific forms to indicate their usage in a sentence, and that includes the possessive. Personal pronouns, interrogative pronouns [who, whom, whose, which, what], and relative pronouns [who, whom, whose, which, that] have one form when used as a subject in a sentence, another form when used as an object, and a special form for the possessive.

• Possessive pronouns include:
  

Singular: my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, whose

Plural: our, ours, your, yours, their, theirs, whose

Among these, the ones which cause the most confusion are its and whose. The writer using these pronouns needs to stop and think what the words means in the sentence.

its means "belonging to it"
it's is the contraction which means "it is"
whose means "belonging to whom"
who's is the contraction meaning "who is"

In Brief: Never use an apostrophe to indicate the possessive form of personal, reflexive, or relative pronouns.

Possessive nouns, or who owns what

To make a noun show possession, an apostrophe is needed. There are two general rules that cover most situations. These rarely present difficulties for writers. Problems sometimes arise with the exceptions to those rules.

• To form the possessive of a singular noun, add an apostrophe and an s.

After a semester at college, Tom had a greater appreciation for his mother's cooking.

The exception to this rule occurs when the singular noun ends with an s or z. You may have noted that sometimes an apostrophe and an s are used after a singular noun ending with s or z and sometimes only an apostrophe is used. So how do you know which is correct? Pronounce the word aloud. If you add a syllable when you say the word in the possessive, then it is correct to use an apostrophe and an s. Otherwise, only use an apostrophe.

One of the the lioness's cubs wandered away from the pride.

Achilles' heel was the only place he could be wounded.

• To form the possessive of a plural noun that ends with an s, add only an apostrophe after the s. To form the possessive of a plural noun that does not end in s, add an apostrophe and an s.
  

The Stevensons' car is two years older than ours. [The car belongs to more than one person.]

The employees' uniforms were ruined in the flood. [The uniforms of all the employees, not just one.]

The children's toys were scattered across the carpet.


Note that the placement of the apostrophe can change the meaning in the sentence:

The nurse's schedule is on the bulletin board. [There is one nurse.]

The nurses' schedule is on the bulletin board. [There is more than one nurse.]


Those are the basic rules. There are additional rules for special cases. The first one may seem obvious, but the other two often cause problems for writers.

• To form the possessive of a compound noun (one comprised of more than one word, with or without hyphens), add an apostrophe and s or an apostrophe at the end of the compound.

Jarred is painting his mother-in-law's house.

Memorial Day's weather was unseasonably cool.

• To form the possessive when two or more nouns own the same item(s), use an apostrophe and an s or an apostrophe after the last noun only.

Sally and Francie's presentation impressed the Mrs. Porter. [The two prepared a single, group presentation.]

Matt and Andy's mom teaches computer science. [Both have the same mom; they are brothers.]

• To form the possessive when two or more nouns individually own the same type of item, use an apostrophe and an s or an apostrophe after each noun.

Sally's and Francie's history reports were two days late. [Each girl wrote her own separate report; both reports were two days late.]

Matt's and Andy's moms baked cupcakes for the bake sale. [Both Matt's mom and Andy's mom - they are not brothers - baked cupcakes.]

In Brief: There are no shortcuts. Learn the rules so that misplaced apostrophes don't cause confusion for your readers.

Know your readers

"Know your audience," or in other words, your readers. Teachers have preached this maxim for decades, but it bears repeating. Whether you are writing fiction, non-fiction, or school term papers, your writing will have the greatest effect only if you know your readers.

That seems obvious, doesn't it? Obvious it may be, but it's not always easy for writers to achieve.

"Knowing your audience" is actually a two-step process. The first step is deciding what readers you want to reach, and the second step is learning what those readers want to read.

The first step is the easiest for many writers. Part of the initial planning for your fiction or non-fiction piece should include deciding on the audience you want to reach. While this decision may not take a lot of time and doesn't need to be written, it is crucial, for it will determine the type of language (formal, informal, scientific, jargon), the complexity of the content, and even the style and tone of your writing. An article about black holes printed in Boy's Life would be substantially different from an article about the same subject printed in Scientific American.

The second step is sometimes unnecessary. A writer may already know his or her readers. A lifelong hunter would have no trouble writing an article for other hunters about the sport. On the other hand, this step can be a sizable stumbling block. Although we have all been young adults, an adult writer who decides to write a young adult novel needs to do some research - read current young adult literature and, if possible, talk to young adults.

An analogy: I've seen adults who have had no experience with young children sit down to play a game with a preschooler. They know enough to offer to play Candyland rather than Risk, but too often they treat the child like a little adult, expecting the child to understand directions and concepts too complicated for someone of that age when they should be tailoring their explanations and actions to the child's level of ability. Neither the child nor the adult is happy with the arrangement.

In Brief: Know your reader, and keep your reader in mind throughout the writing process.