Which of the following is the correct possessive of plural?
Peoples' homes
People's homes?
Peoples homes?
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asked Oct 16 '13 at 17:17
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We need more context for this particular example. The word people can be either the plural or person or a singular noun meaning "group", and the correct answer will depend on its meaning. – chrylis Oct 16 '13 at 19:03
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replace people with houses, so would it be houses' doors ? i mean the doors for all the houses – Marco Dinatsoli Oct 16 '13 at 19:08
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I could have sworn this was a dupe but I can't find the other question. Maybe we need an in-depth post that goes through all possession rules? – WendiKidd Oct 17 '13 at 13:24
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The general rule is that the apostrophe for a possessive comes after the s of a plural, but if the plural does not end in an s, add 's. The number of the noun being possessed is irrelevant grammatically; although it's usually plural, it could be singular in the case of something shared.
Examples
- doors of houses (plural, ends in s) -> houses' doors
- drivers of cars (plural, ends in s) -> cars' drivers
- houses of Charles (singular) -> Charles's houses
- houses of women (plural but does not end in s) -> women's houses
