Possession is represented in various ways in English, but one summary covers a lot of ground: possessive nouns must have apostrophes, while possessive pronouns must not have apostrophes. We will unpack this idea below and demonstrate it with a number of examples. Before proceeding, make sure you’re clear on the difference between a noun and a pronoun, looking up the difference if necessary.
Classicist Li Nguyen compared two translated editions of a poet’s epigrams–short poems have witty, often satirical endings. She argues that meter’s demands justify the ___ departures from literal phrasing when sense is preserved. The journal’s reviewers praised her analysis and noted its careful use of examples.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of standard English?
A. translators
B. translators’
C. translator’s
D. translator
When the answer choices include at least some examples with apostrophes, as they do here, we should always ask: in the portion in and around the given “blank” is one noun presented as belonging to another noun (or a pronoun)? In this case, the noun that follows the blank is “departures”; do these departures “belong” to the translator(s) mentioned? Indeed they do, because the translators are doing the departing from literal phrasing. For confirmation of this, consider the alternative, with no possession: “translator(s) departures”. It wouldn’t make sense to have two nouns joined immediately together. If no word or punctuation separates them, then grammatically it must be the case that one of them “belongs” to the other.
Thus far, we have discovered enough to eliminate choices A and D, since we know we need an apostrophe to represent possession with a noun. But is the answer B or C? Here we need a rule of apostrophe placement: an apostrophe before the final “s” indicates a singular noun, while an apostrophe after the “s” points to a plural noun. Since both options are available to us in this case, we have to look at the context. But reading the sentence including the blank isn’t enough to distinguish singular from plural; we have to go back to the first sentence, where we discover that there were two translators in this case. So the possessive noun is plural, and the apostrophe must go after the “s”. The answer is B.
There are two primary rules for possession, the first one already mentioned in the introduction.
Example 1: “We should probably put Josh’s leftover burrito in the fridge.” “Really? It’s his burrito; shouldn’t he do it?”
Example 2: Whose well-worn copy of The Hobbit is this? Its pages are wearing and its binding is coming apart.
Example: I tripped on the children’s chalk on the driveway. I worry about those girls’ sense of responsibility!
Not only will SAT wrong answers leave out a needed apostrophe, but they will sometimes do the opposite: add an apostrophe where there shouldn’t be one. Consider the sentence, “I love being at my friends’ houses’.” If you type those words in a Google doc and have an AI grammar checker, you’ll get a red line under “houses’”, and for good reason! Nothing belongs to the houses in this sentence, so there’s no need for an apostrophe. Only the “friends’” should be possessive: many friends who have houses.
We note this above with the example of “children’s”: there are few nouns that are plural but don’t end in “s”. In those cases, an apostrophe plus “s” is added to the end of the word. Other examples: “the women’s horses,” “the men’s books,” “the people’s rights.”
Answer this: What does the letter Q in the QUICKER method stand for?
Read the QUESTION first.
A historian examined the university press’s archives for patterns in editorial practice, noting that while peer reviewers’ comments often sharpen authors’ arguments, final authority is ___ alone, when he or she conducts the final review. This reality puts the editor in an influential position and underscores the importance of editing work.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of standard English?
A. the editor’s
B. the editors
C. the editor
D. the editors’
The answer is A. First, we must ensure that there is possession present in order to rule out the answers without apostrophes. Does something belong to the editor(s) in this case? Although we often look to the next word in order to find the “belonging” word, such a word can also appear earlier in the sentence, depending on the structure of the clause. In this case, it is the “final authority” that belongs to the editor(s); this is clear in context, as the editor(s) is/are contrasted with reviewers who also have some influence.
Having narrowed the answer choices to the two with apostrophes, how do we choose? It may not be clear at first whether one editor or many editors are in view here, but if you keep reading, you’ll find the join pronoun “he or she”. That tells us that only one editor is in view, so the apostrophe must go before the “s”.
A museum curator who assessed the museum’s storage protocols noted that one gallery required stricter humidity controls to protect ___ artifacts. Although the institution has expanded its conservation lab, the curator argued that more should be done: preservation should match public access in priority.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of standard English?
A. its
B. it’s
C. their
D. they’re
The answer is A. Since the answer choices offer us possessive pronouns, we have a chance to put into practice the second part of the rule presented more than once in this lesson: possessive pronouns never have apostrophes. Have you ever had trouble memorizing the difference between “its” and “it’s” or the difference between “who’s” and “whose”? If you remember the simple principle regarding possessive pronouns, it will help you enormously in this area.
Since the “artifacts” certainly belong to the museum in this case, we know we have possession, and since we are dealing with pronouns, we can eliminate the two answer choices with apostrophes. To finish the process, remember that we are talking about the museum, singular, that owns the artifacts. We need the singular, so “its” rather than “their”.
Policy analysts reviewed the circulation data of a number of public libraries. They concluded that weekend hours increase the frequency of ________ to the library and strengthen their engagement with early-literacy programs. Because libraries thereby improved their outreach, card registrations increased. The analysts recommended extending pilot funding for similar programs.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of standard English?
A. families’ visits’
B. family’s visits
C. families’ visits
D. familys’ visit’s
The answer is C. Sometimes the SAT will ask you about two nouns that are to fill in the blank; invariably in these case, one of the nouns “possesses” the other, so we need an appropriate apostrophe in the correct position. Wrong answers in these cases will put apostrophes on both nouns, which wouldn’t make sense because then both nouns would be possessing, but there would be nothing left for them to possess! So we can rule out the two answer choices here with two apostrophes.
To distinguish between the remaining choices, ask: how many families are represented as making visits to the libraries? It can’t be just one family, because in that case we would see “a family’s …” The article “a” is not present. So the paragraph must concern multiple families, which makes sense in the context of multiple libraries. The proper form takes the plural word “families” and puts the apostrophe after the “s”.
Based on a certain court’s ruling on data privacy, a legal scholar made the following suggestion: because agencies’ mandates overlap, the opinion clarifies that an app developer’s liability turns on ___ regarding consent. As a result, the commission responsible for these agencies updated its guidance in conformity with this suggestion.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of standard English?
A. users thoughts’
B. a users’ thoughts
C. user’s thoughts
D. users’ thoughts
The answer is D. Another question with two nouns, but in this case, there are no “easy eliminate” answers with two apostrophes. It behooves us to look at the two nouns: “user(s)” and “thoughts” and ask, Which belongs to which? Do the thoughts belong to the user(s), or do the user(s) belong to the thoughts? Clearly the former: users are people who have thoughts. So “user(s)” should have the apostrophe, which eliminates choice A. Choice B doesn’t make sense because the “a” implies a singular user but the apostrophe goes after the “s”, implying a plural user.
Our final wrong answer choice can be eliminated for the opposite reason to the previous one. The phrase “user’s thoughts” has the apostrophe before the “s” and therefore suggests a single user. But a single user would have to be preceded by either “a” or “the”. Neither is there in the passage. So we are left with the answer envisioning multiple users having thoughts.
After analyzing an animal sanctuary’s camera-trap footage, a biologist noted that one corridor funneled wildlife toward a highway, threatening ___ survival during migrations. The biologist pointed to neighboring reserves’ mitigation as a guide to the park as its leadership considered how to improve the situation.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of standard English?
A. it’s
B. its
C. their
D. there
The answer is B. This answer is likely to surprise many students: isn’t the “wildlife” being discussed comprised of many animals? Surely there’s not just one animal being “funneled … toward a highway,” right? Right! The meaning is almost certainly plural. But the grammar is singular. When you are given the word “wildlife”, a singular word, and no other suggestion that the grammatical idea has switched to plural, you have to stick with a singular possessive form. That means the answer is either A or B, and “It’s” is out because that means “it is” (and because, as this lesson repeatedly makes clear, possessive pronouns cannot have apostrophes!
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