Question

Identify the possessive noun in the following sentence.
The clever girl’s plan to trap the robbers worked.

a) Clever
b) Girl’s
c) Trap
d) Robbers

Answer 1

Hint: A possessive noun indicates the ownership the noun has over someone or something. It is usually written with an apostrophe.

Complete answer:

An apostrophe is a punctuation mark that indicates the possessive form of nouns. We use the possessive form to describe the nouns referring to people, groups of people, countries, and so.
Possessive nouns are nouns that possess something or show the possession of something. While singular nouns become possessive with the addition of an apostrophe and ‘s’ to it, plural nouns and words ending with ‘s’ simply need an apostrophe to it.
Example: boy – boy’s and boys – boys’.
In the given sentence, we identify that only girl’s is the term that has an apostrophe and thus indicates a possessive case. It refers to something that the girl possesses, in this case, her plan.
Therefore, option b becomes the right answer.
Option a cannot be the right answer as ‘clever’ is an adjective and it cannot take a possessive form.
We rule out options c as ‘trap’ is given here as a verb instead of being a noun.
Option d is wrong as ‘robbers’ cannot be the correct possessive noun. Robbers’ is the right form.

Note: Usage of an apostrophe also indicates the contracted form of negative words. Example: do not – don’t, will not – won’t.