What is the plural possessive form of "people"?

1 Answer
Jun 24, 2018

#"people"color(red)("'s")# or #"people"color(red)(color(red)("s'")#

Explanation:

"Our New Years celebration is for all people. It is a #color(red)("people's")# party"

"people" may be considered a plural form (of "person");
however
"peoples" may be a plural form of people when "people" is used to refer a variety of nationalities or races.

Formation of the possessive follows the normal rules:

  • adding #color(blue)("'s")# to nouns that do not end in #color(green)"s"#
  • adding #color(blue)("'")# (just an apostrophe) to nouns (especially plural forms) that end in #color(green)"s"#

[there is some regional variety here; in some places if the noun ends in "s" but is not plural, #color(blue)("'s")# is used e.g. the possessive of "Charles" may be written as "Charles's" or just as "Charles'".