How do you show that a girl named Suz has lots of flowers using the possessive "s"? Is it "Suz' flowers." or "Suz's flowers."?

1 Answer
Apr 18, 2018

The correct form is #"Suz's flowers"#.

Explanation:

To figure out how to use possessive apostrophes, you need to know a little bit about your word. First ask if it's singular or plural. If it's plural, there are two more questions you need to ask: whether it ends in an #s# or not.

Here's a little chart with examples:

1. Is it singular? (Is there only one of it?)
#rarr# The correct form is #"'s"#

EXAMPLES:
That is the dog#color(red)"'s"# bone .
Rachel#color(red)"'s"# car was stolen.
The company#color(red)"'s"# billing statements were sent out late.
The book#color(red)"'s"# pages were crinkled and torn.

2. Is it plural? (Is there more than one?)

  • Does it end in #s#?
    #rarr# The correct form is just an apostrophe after the word:

EXAMPLES:
The animals#color(blue)"'"# feed was changed last month.
The boys#color(blue)"'"# father had to punish them for being naughty.
Those photos#color(blue)"'"# resolution isn't very good.

  • Does it not end in #s#?
    #rarr# The correct form is an #"'s"#
    children's, alumni's, sheep's

EXAMPLES:
The children#color(orange)"'s"# toys were left outside and got wet.
The alumni#color(orange)"'s"# speeches weren't that inspiring this year.
The sheep#color(orange)"'s"# wool that the farmer cut off needed to be washed.

Your word Suz is the name of one girl, so it's singular. So the correct form is:

#"Suz's flowers"#

There are some exceptions to these rules, so here is a helpful article if you need more information. You will have to scroll near the bottom to the section called "Possessives".