Question

Complete the following sentence using the correct possessive pronoun:
Our team lost the match because they did not listen to the ________ advice.
a. coach
b. coaches
c. coach’s
d. coaches’

Answer 1

Hint: A possessive pronoun shows possession. For example, mine, his, hers, etc. show possession. If it is singular, the apostrophe is placed before the ‘s’; if it is plural, the apostrophe is placed after the ‘s’.

Complete answer:
In the given sentence, we are talking about the advice of a coach. Every team usually has one coach. Therefore, the coach here will be singular. While showing possession of a singular object, we use the apostrophe before the ‘s’. Thus, the word will be “coach’s”. The correct option therefore is option c.
Other examples are:
If I say that the ribbon belongs to my cat, I’ll say That is my cat’s ribbon. We are talking about one cat.
If I have two cats and both have lost their ribbons, I’ll say, Those are my cats’ ribbons. The apostrophe has been placed after the s to show that I’m talking about more than one cat.
Let us see why the other options are wrong.
Option a is wrong because just the word ‘coach’ does not show any possessiveness.
Option b makes no use of an apostrophe which shows possessiveness. It uses the plural of the word ‘coach’.
Option d uses the apostrophe after the s which means there is more than one coach. However, logically every team has only one coach so it is inappropriate.

Note: Note that if the word ends with the alphabet ‘s’, we use the apostrophe after the s irrespective of it being singular or plural. For example, if I want to refer to a pencil which belongs to a boy named Jones, I’ll say “Jones’ pencil” and not “Jones’s pencil”.