ESL Lesson: Possessive Nouns

Hello! This blog post is about helping ESL learners better understand possessive nouns. What are possessive nouns? Remember that nouns are any people, places, things, animals, ideas or events. When any noun has or is related to something else, then the possessive is used. Possessive nouns require a punctuation mark called the apostrophe. The apostrophe looks like this
'
Now, here are ways the apostrophe is used to make a noun into a possessive noun.

We use the possessive 's with a person to talk about relatives and possessions.

Examples:
She is Omar's sister.
I am Jane's oldest uncle.
Bobby's pet dog is named Rover.
Fritz's car broke down on the highway.

We also use the possessive 's with irregular plural nouns: men, women, children, people, etc.
Examples:

Here are my children's rooms.
Those women's jewelry look really shiny and pretty.
The people's attitude on the issue changed over time.


We use the possessive s' with regular plural nouns.

Examples:
Dr. Janet Smith is my parents' colleague at the university.

The dogs' excitement increased once they reached the park.
The cats' collars are too tight around their necks.

When a noun ends with the letter s, we simply add an apostrophe ' to the end of the noun.

Examples:

James' car is a red convertible. 

This book is Russ'.

Francois' hat is brown, wool and very sharp-looking. 

Do you understand possessive nouns better? Share your questions, comments or suggestions in the comment section. Stay tuned for more ESL advice including possessive pronouns on this blog. If you are interested in personal, one-on-one tutoring in ESL or other subjects, contact Kingston University USA. Find out how you can live locally and learn globally!

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ESL: Singular and Plural

This blog post is about helping you better understand singular and plural nouns in the English language. 


What is a singular noun? A singular noun is a noun that refers to one person, one animal, one thing, one place, one event or one idea.
Here are some examples where the singular nouns are underlined:
The woman goes to the cafe to have a drink.
A runner races through the park.
The puppy wags his tail.
The bird sings a song.
Sarah picked up her backpack and her books.
The apples are in the fruit bowl.
What day is today?
Happiness is an exciting feeling to have.


A plural noun is a noun that refers to a number besides one. 
This could be anything more than one, zero or negative numbers.


Most plural nouns are made by adding -s or -es to the singular noun.
Singular - Plural:
room - rooms
hat - hats
house - houses
river - rivers
day - days

minute - minutes

student - students 

gas - gases

box - boxes

A noun ending in -y preceded by a consonant makes the plural with -ies.
Singular - Plural
fly - flies
puppy - puppies

city - cities

baby - babies

lady - ladies

There are some irregular formations for noun plurals. Some of the most common ones are listed below.
Singular - Plural:
person - people
woman - women
man - men
child - children
tooth - teeth
foot - feet
mouse - mice
leaf - leaves
fungus - fungi
nucleus - nuclei 

goose - geese
half - halves
knife - knives
wife - wives
life - lives
loaf - loaves
cactus - cacti
focus - foci
syllabus - syllabi/syllabuses
analysis - analyses
thesis -  theses
crisis - crises

Some nouns have the same form in the singular and the plural.
Singular - Plural:

sheep - sheep

fish - fish

deer - deer

shorts -shorts

moose - moose

you - you

species - species

aircraft - aircraft

Some singular nouns group more than one person, place, or thing together. Even though the group contains more than one, the noun is still considered as singular because there is one group. These types of nouns are called collective nouns.
Examples:
Corps
Team
Neighborhood
Litter
Pride
Group

Remember, singular means one. It could be one person, one place, one idea, or one thing, as well as a single group of multiple people, things, ideas or places.

Nothing can improve ESL and general language skills more than practice with specialized instructors. Contact Kingston University USA to find out more about enrolling in an English language course or receiving ESL tutoring. You will discover that you can live locally and learn globally no matter what your current English abilities are!

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