Spelling Slip-Ups: Plurals, Possessives, and Apostrophes

Some of the most common spelling errors relate to forming plurals and possessives. For most plural nouns, we simply add “s” or “es.” Confusion arises in special cases, such as proper nouns, compound nouns, and irregulars. Avoid this common error: Plural forms do not take an apostrophe unless they are indicating possession.

Spell-check will help you catch common plural forms, such as adding “es” for words ending in s, j, x, z, ch, or sh, and changing the y to ies for babies but not for boys. Spell-check, however, won’t necessarily catch misused apostrophes or irregular plural forms.

Singular	Plural	Singular Possessive	Plural Possessive
mountain	mountains	mountain’s	mountains’
church	churches	church’s	churches’
potato	potatoes	potato’s	potatoes’
patio	patios	patio’s	patios’
child	children	child’s	children’s
leaf	leaves	leaf’s	leaves’

For plural names, add “s,” or “es” if the name ends in s, j, x, z, ch, or sh. No apostrophe is needed for the plural forms unless they are possessive.

Singular	Plural	Singular Possessive	Plural Possessive
Ms. Winter	The Winters	Ms. Winter's	The Winters'
Mr. Jones	The Joneses	Mr. Jones’s	The Joneses’
United States	United States	United States’	United States’
the species	the species	the species’	the species’

Clarification notes: Regarding the "Jones" sample, the following sentence shows all four forms in use: Mr. Jones asked all the Joneses whether they preferred Mr. Jones's splendid cubist rendition of the family portrait or the Joneses' austere oil that hung, in staid tradition, over the mantle. Also, note that in the last two samples, "United States" and "species," the singular and plural forms of the noun are the same, and the apostrophes appear after the "s" in both cases.

Common sense can help you choose the correct form when it comes to compounds, and if it’s still unclear, the dictionary should have the answer.

Add “s” to numbers: in 1980 becomes in the 1980s and 1, 2, and 3 becomes 1s, 2s, and 3s

For the possessive, the apostrophe is used: the financial downturn of 1989 becomes 1989’s financial downturn

Add “s” or an apostrophe “s” to letters: P and Q becomes Ps and Qs and URL becomes URLs, BUT the lowercase x and y becomes x’s and y’s to avoid confusion, and abc becomes abc’s.