Question

If I use the word "accused" as a noun, representing multiple people who are accused, what would the possessive form be? As in "the accused lives"?

Answer 1

Hint: Noun is a naming word. It is a word that refers to any name, place, thing, feeling, animal or abstract idea. There are 7 main types of nouns are Common nouns, Proper nouns, Concrete nouns, Abstract nouns, Collective nouns, Count and mass nouns.

Complete answer:
In the above question, we have to find out the possessive form of the noun “accused”. Let us first understand what we mean by possessive forms-

Possessive forms are the forms of “ ‘s”. They are used with nouns and pronouns to show possession. We simply add apostrophe ‘s’ with a noun to convert it into a possessive form. With the singular form of nouns we add ( ‘s ) and in the case of plural nouns, we only add ( ‘ ). But sometimes, we add ‘s with the plural nouns/pronouns as well.

The plural nouns ending with s only have (‘) in their possessive form. For e.g. leaves, oranges
The plural nouns that do not end with s will have (‘s) in their possessive form. For e.g. wool, sheep
All the singular nouns will take ‘s in their possessive form

Now since the plural of the word ‘accused’ is accused. To show the ownership of lives the plural form accused will use an ‘s and be written as “the accused’s lives “. It is so because the plural form does not end in ‘s’ therefore it will take both apostrophe and s

Note: There are only 3 exceptional cases where apostrophe/ apostrophe s is not used. 1) When a name is ending with s e.g. James, Thomas etc. 2) Pronouns use only ‘s’ not “ ‘s or ‘ “ to show possession. For e.g. hers, ours etc. 3) as already discussed the plural nouns ending with s.