Question

How do you use apostrophe to show joint ownership? For example:-John’s and Joan’s house or John and Joan’s house ?

Answer 1

Hint:The apostrophe is a punctuation mark which is denoted by (‘), it serves different purposes in English grammar. One of them is to show ownership or possession. An apostrophe is added to the end of a proper noun followed by the letter s (‘s) to show a possession or ownership by that noun. Example: Leo’s parents. We will see what is the correct way to refer to a joint ownership in the complete answer below.

Complete answer:
Let us discuss how we use apostrophe to show ownership.

When two people own the same thing separately, that is unjointed, we use the apostrophe with the individual nouns. Example: If Tim and Timmy are siblings who own two separate cars, we will refer to them as:- Tim’s and Timmy’s cars are very expensive.
Also, note that we have used plural nouns like ‘cars’. We have treated the subjects individually.

When two people own the same thing jointly, we use the apostrophe with the second noun. Example: If Tim and Timmy are siblings who own the same car, we will refer as:-Tim and Timmy’s car as very expensive.
Also, note that we have used singular nouns like ‘car’. We have treated the subjects as a whole.

Note:The possessive of a plural noun is formed when we add only an apostrophe when the noun ends in letter ‘s’, and by adding both an apostrophe and the letter ‘s’ when it ends in a letter other than ‘s’.
Example: The lawyers’ exam is difficult.
Example: The children’s games are fun.