In general, to form a possessive of a singular noun or of a plural noun that doesn't end in s, add 's to the end of the word. For a plural noun that ends in s, add an apostrophe but no additional s.
Examples of correct possessives
- alias's
- Elise Williams's
- the Williamses'
- women's
Examples of incorrect possessives
- aliases's
- Elise Williams'
- the Williams'
- womens'
Product, feature, and company names
When describing function or performance, don't form a possessive from a feature name, product name, or trademark, regardless of who owns it. Instead, use the name as a modifier or rewrite to use a word like of to indicate the relationship.
Recommended: You can use this template to monitor Google Search performance.
Recommended: You can use this template to monitor the performance of Google Search.
Not recommended: You can use this template to monitor Google Search's performance.
To form the possessive of a company name, add 's to the end of the name. Don't form the possessive of a company name when using it as a trademark.
Recommended: Google's new office is nearby.
Not recommended: The capabilities of Google's Search are vast.
For information about using trademarks as adjectives, not nouns, see Trademarks.Code items
Don't form the possessive of a code item. Instead, form the possessive from the noun that follows the code item or rewrite to avoid the possessive form.
Recommended: Compare the number to the
wordCount method's return value.
Recommended: Compare the number to the
value returned by the wordCount method.
Not recommended: Compare the number to
wordCount's return value.
For more information, see Grammatical treatment of code elements.