APOSTROPHES WITH POSSESSIVES
Circle the correct choice in each of the following.

1.  The jury's / juries verdict may depend on the skill of the attorney's / attorneys who argue the case.
Answer:  jury's and attorneys.  The first is possessive because the meaning is "verdict of the jury"; the second (attorneys) is a simple plural, the object of the preposition of.

2.  On this books' / book's / books cover is a picture of the authors / author's dog.
Answer:  book's and author's.  We know that the owner word must be book because it is preceded by this, and since the dog belonging to the author is depicted, it is "the author's dog."  (If the book had two or more authors who, in turn, had only one dog, we would have to write the authors' dog.)

3.  Politicians often pay little attention to their constituents' / constituent's / constituents interests.
Answer:  constituents'.  The sentence refers to the interests of their constituents (plural).  The owner word is constituents.

4.  He looked over all the course's / courses' / courses, and he decided that this professors / professors' / professor's course would be the easiest.
Answer:  In the first set, the correct choice is courses, the simple plural, because no possession is involved.  In the second set, the correct choice is professor's.  It is the course of this professor, and professor is the owner word.  (We know that it is not professors, plural, because it is preceded by this.)

5.  Mary lost a months / months' / month's wages gambling at Atlantic City.
Answer:  month's.  The wages for a month = a month's wages.  (If you missed this one, you need to go back to the second paragraph under "Warnings and Special Cases" in the Basics.)

6.  The Supreme Court's / Courts' / Courts decision regarding abortion has created considerable controversy.
Answer:  Court's.  The owner word is Court because there is only one Supreme Court.  It is the decision of the Supreme Court.

7.  One should never cut a cats / cats' / cat's whiskers / whiskers' / whisker's.
Answer:  cat's and whiskers.  The owner word is cat (we know it is singular because of the article a).  A simple plural (whiskers) is all we need for the second noun.  The whiskers of a cat = a cat's whiskers.

8.  The cost of many manufacturers / manufacturers' / manufacturer's products may be affected by the rising price of fuel.
Answer:  manufacturers'.  We refer to the products of many manufacturers; the owner word is plural (manufacturers), not singular (manufacturer).  It ends in s, so we add an apostrophe to form the possessive.

9.  The Thomas's / Thomases' / Thomases / Thomases's mailbox is painted red, white, and blue.
Answer:  Thomases'.  This one is tricky and is usually missed by a majority of students.  The simple plural is Thomases – that is, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas are the Thomases.  The mailbox belongs to them, the Thomases; so Thomases is the owner word, which we make possessive by adding only an apostrophe.

10.  Everyone was surprised at Freds / Freds' / Fred / Fred's winning a scholarship.
Answer:  Fred's.  This is also tricky.  The first two (Fredsand Freds') are obviously wrong because there is only one of him.  But why is "Fred winning" wrong?  It is because everyone was not surprised at Fred; everyone was surprised at his (note the possessive pronoun) winning a scholarship.

Sentence #10 illustrates a rule that is not mentioned among our "Basics" for apostrophe use – a rule stating that we use the possessive case for a noun or pronoun that immediately precedes a gerund.  A gerund is a verb form used as a noun.  In this sentence, winning is such a word (it functions as the object of the preposition at and therefore as a noun).  Thus, the pronoun or noun immediately preceding winning is in the possessive case (his winning or Fred's winning).

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