Odd or Particularly Troublesome Possessives in the English Language

Odd or Particularly Troublesome Possessives in the English Language

Forming possessives in English often looks simple: add an apostrophe and an s, or add an apostrophe after an existing s, and you are done. For a large number of nouns, this rule works very well: the researcher’s laptop, the students’ essays, the editor’s comments. However, a closer look at actual usage reveals a surprising set of exceptions, special cases and historically shaped conventions that can puzzle even experienced academic authors.

Some of the most troublesome forms are those that look like possessives but are not, such as it’s. Others involve possessive pronouns that never take an apostrophe, or phrases that have gradually dropped their apostrophes over time despite having clearly possessive origins. Yet other difficulties arise from grammar rather than spelling—particularly when deciding whether a noun before a gerund should appear in the possessive form. Because academic and scientific prose demands precision, these “edge cases” are worth understanding and handling consistently.

This article surveys several common problem areas, illustrates them with examples and offers practical guidance for researchers and students who want to avoid distracting errors in their publications and dissertations.

1. Possessive Pronouns That Take s but No Apostrophe

Many writers are taught early on that possessives are formed with an apostrophe. It is therefore counterintuitive that some of the most frequent possessive forms in English never include one. Consider the personal pronouns our, your, her and their. These are already possessive in forms such as:

• our car
• your paper
• her dog
• their hotel

However, English also provides “independent” possessive forms that stand alone without a following noun. To form these, we add an s but no apostrophe:

• “The car is ours.”
• “The paper is yours.”
• “The dog is hers.”
• “The hotel is theirs.”

These are not errors or informal variants; they are the standard and only correct spellings. Attempting to insert apostrophes—our’s, your’s, her’s, their’s—produces non-standard forms that should be avoided in all academic writing.

Other pronouns have similar pairs: my / mine, his / his, its / its. Again, these are possessive forms but never take an apostrophe. This brings us to one of the most frequently misused possessives in English: its.

2. Its vs It’s: A Small Apostrophe, a Big Difference

Few possessive forms cause as many problems as its. The confusion arises because English normally uses an apostrophe to signal possession, but in this one case the apostrophe marks something quite different: a contraction.

When we write its without an apostrophe, we are using the possessive form of the pronoun it:

• “The house lost its shingles in the storm.”
• “The study has its limitations.”
• “Each method has its own advantages.”

Here, its functions like his or her: it shows possession but does not contain an apostrophe.

By contrast, it’s—with an apostrophe—is not a possessive form at all. It is a contraction, standing for either it is or it has:

• “It’s clear that more research is needed.” (= It is)
• “It’s been a productive year for the project.” (= It has)

In formal academic writing, contractions are often discouraged, but even when they are permitted, the distinction between its and it’s must be maintained. A reliable way to check is to substitute it is or it has into the sentence. If the result does not make sense, you almost certainly need its rather than it’s.

3. Names of Wars, Institutions and Other “Possessive-Looking” Phrases

Another group of troublesome forms includes names that historically contained possessives but have now settled into conventional spellings that omit the apostrophe. Some of these feel intuitive, while others are memorised more easily as fixed phrases.

Names of Wars by Length

Wars named for their duration typically use a plural noun followed by the word War, without any apostrophe:

• the Hundred Years War
• the Thirty Years War

These are sometimes miswritten as Hundred Years’ War or even Hundred Year’s War. Despite their possessive flavour, the standard modern form does not use an apostrophe at all. In academic work—especially in history, international relations or cultural studies—it is worth checking the conventional form used by your field or by reputable reference sources and following that consistently.

Business and Institutional Names

A similar pattern appears in the names of companies and institutions. Even when the name clearly originated as a possessive phrase, current branding and usage may omit the apostrophe. For example:

• a Woolworths store
• the Citizens Advice Bureau

In both cases, we might expect apostrophes (Woolworth’s, Citizens’), but they are not generally used in modern forms. Because such names are legal or official entities, their spelling is a matter of convention rather than pure grammatical logic. Academic writers should therefore reproduce them exactly as the organisation itself uses them, resisting the temptation to “correct” them into more obviously possessive forms.

4. The Special Case of Whose

The relative pronoun who occupies its own niche in the possessive system. To form its genitive (possessive) case, we do not add an apostrophe and s; instead, we use whose:

• “The student whose essay won the award worked very hard.”
• “The researcher whose data were reanalysed responded to the critique.”

Here, whose clearly marks possession—of the essay, of the data—but it does so without an apostrophe. This makes whose look superficially similar to who’s. As with it’s, however, the apostrophised form who’s is a contraction (who is or who has), not a possessive pronoun.

Interestingly, whose can also act as the possessive form of which. Some writers find this construction more elegant and less clumsy than the corresponding phrase with of which:

• “The book whose author became an overnight success sold out immediately.”
• “The theory whose assumptions we tested is widely cited.”

Compare these with:

• “The book, the author of which became an overnight success, sold out immediately.”
• “The theory, the assumptions of which we tested, is widely cited.”

Both structures are grammatically correct, but the whose versions are often more readable. In modern academic style, especially where clarity and concision are valued, whose is frequently preferred.

5. Possessives Before Gerunds: A Notoriously Thorny Area

Perhaps the most conceptually challenging area of possessive usage involves nouns or pronouns that come immediately before a gerund (the -ing form of a verb used as a noun). Should the noun appear in the possessive form, or should it remain unchanged?

Cases Where the Possessive Should Not Be Used

Sometimes the noun before the gerund is clearly the subject of the sentence, not an adjectival modifier of the gerund. In such cases, adding an apostrophe would be wrong. Consider:

“Students registering for English classes should line up at the front desk.”

Here, students are the subject of the sentence—they are doing the registering. If we wrote students’ registering, we would imply that registering itself was the subject, and students’ was merely a possessive determiner. That is not the intended meaning, so the plain plural noun students is correct.

Cases Where the Possessive Is Clearly Needed

In other sentences, the action expressed by the gerund is the true subject, and the preceding noun functions more like an adjective specifying whose action we are talking about. For example:

“Sarah’s driving saved them from the accident.”

In this sentence, it is driving that saved them; Sarah’s simply tells us whose driving. The gerund phrase Sarah’s driving acts as a unit, and the possessive form is both grammatically appropriate and stylistically natural.

Borderline Cases and Authorial Choice

Not all examples are so clear-cut. Take the sentence:

“The father worried about his daughters’ going to the party alone.”

From a strictly grammatical perspective, daughters’ going treats going as the object of worry, with daughters’ modifying it possessively. This emphasises the act of going as the thing that concerns the father. However, some writers and readers find the plural possessive before a gerund slightly stiff or pedantic, especially in everyday contexts. They may prefer:

“The father worried about his daughters going to the party alone.”

In this version, daughters could be interpreted as the object of worry and going to the party alone as a participial phrase attached to it. Grammatically, both sentences can be defended, and in many contexts both will be understood in the same way.

Because such cases are hazy, style often becomes a matter of preference and consistency. A formal, traditional grammar approach may favour the possessive when the gerund functions clearly as a noun. More modern usage, especially in less formal prose, tends to omit the apostrophe unless clarity demands it.

Using Pronoun Substitution as a Test

One practical strategy for deciding whether to use a possessive before a gerund is to replace the noun with an appropriate pronoun and see what sounds natural. Returning to the examples above:

• “Students registering for English classes …”
  Try substituting they or their:
  • “They registering for English classes …” (incorrect)
  • “Their registering for English classes …” (odd and ungrammatical in this context)
  This confirms that students is acting as the subject and should not take a possessive.

• “Sarah’s driving saved them from the accident.”
  Replace Sarah’s driving with she or her driving:
  • “She saved them from the accident.” (logical paraphrase)
  • “Her driving saved them from the accident.” (perfectly natural)
  Here, the possessive form clearly works and reflects the intended meaning.

• “The father worried about his daughters’ going to the party alone.”
  Try their going and them going:
  • “The father worried about their going to the party alone.”
  • “The father worried about them going to the party alone.”
  Both versions are widely used and generally acceptable. When both the possessive (their going) and the non-possessive (them going) sound natural, the choice can reasonably be guided by style preferences and consistency.

In ambiguous cases, choose the form that feels most natural to you and aligns with your target journal’s style, then apply that choice consistently throughout your document. Consistency is often more important than a theoretical distinction that readers will not consciously notice.

Conclusion

Possessive forms in English are mostly predictable, but the language also contains a number of oddities that can trap even careful writers. Independent possessive pronouns such as ours, yours, hers and theirs take an s but never an apostrophe. The tiny difference between its and it’s signals a crucial contrast between possession and contraction. Historical and institutional names may drop apostrophes despite having possessive origins, and the relative pronoun whose provides a unique, apostrophe-free possessive for both who and, at times, which. Finally, nouns before gerunds occupy a grey area in which the possessive is sometimes required, sometimes incorrect and sometimes simply a matter of stylistic taste.

For academic and scientific authors, understanding these subtleties is not a matter of pedantry but of professionalism. Correct and consistent possessive forms help ensure that manuscripts read smoothly and do not distract reviewers and readers with avoidable errors. By paying attention to the special cases outlined in this article and by using practical tests such as pronoun substitution, you can approach even the most troublesome possessives with confidence.