Nouns form the possessive in two ways: (1) they become the object of the preposition of, or (2) they add the ending -’s (apostrophe plus -s). Look at these examples:
| the roar of a lion | a lion’s roar |
| the color of the book | the book’s color |
| the children of Mrs. Diaz | Mrs. Diaz’s children |
| the prey of the wolves | the wolves’ prey |
The possessive is used to show to whom or to what something belongs:
- This is Ginny’s car.
- The kittens of an alley cat have a hard life.