English Help: I think I need help describing possessive nouns?
Asked by
pleiades (
6617)
June 18th, 2014
I have a poetry blog called, “Black Swan’s Song”
I’m trying to simply describe a song by one black swan.
Does my title seem fit for my description? Or is the apostrophe not needed?
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6 Answers
The apostrophe is there to indicate possession. It is required.
Pleiades’ son = the son of Pleiades.
Black swan’s song = the song of the black swan.
Black swan’s songs = the songs of the black swan (his whole repertoire)
Black swans’ songs = the songs of several or many black swans.
Jacob’s ladder = the ladder of Jacob.
Hell’s Angel = one of them
Hell’s Angel = two or more
edit: Sorry. I meant “Hell’s Angels” to indicate two or more of them.
Hell’s Angel’s song = the song of one member of the group
Hell’s Angels’ songs = songs of the group of bikers, if there are such
Hell’s Angels’ song’s tune = the tune of one song of… you know
Hell’s Angles’ songs’ tunes = the tunes of the songs of the… and so on
Your description is correct: “Black Swan’s Song”.
it is correct. had the swans been plural possessive, you would say ‘The swans’ Song’
Simple rule so you won’t need to ask next time:
You always need an apostrophe and you always need exactly one ‘s’*.
If there is already an ‘s’, so as not to split up the word, simply add the apostrophe behind the last letter.
Swan sings
-> Swan ‘s song
Swans sing
-> Swan s’ song
* “Its” is a common exception. This is because “it’s” already has a different definition (“it is”). Very poorly planned ;)
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