SAT Conventions — plural or possessive? scientists, scientist's, scientists'

Form, Structure, and Sense questions on the SAT often turn on one small mark: the apostrophe. The same word can be a plain plural, a singular possessive or a plural possessive, and pronouns add a second trap, because the possessive forms its, their and whose take no apostrophe while the contractions it's, they're and who's do. Choosing correctly means asking two questions of the sentence: how many owners are there, and does anything belong to them at all?

The twelve quiz questions each give an original text about a real scientist, event or natural phenomenon with a blank. Because options that differ only by an apostrophe would look almost identical, each option spells the form and names it, for example a plural possessive with the apostrophe after the s. Four questions deal with nouns: a plural possessive for two scientists who shared a notebook, a plural possessive for the Wright brothers, a singular possessive for one naturalist, and a plain plural that owns nothing. One covers the irregular plural possessive women's. The remaining seven deal with pronouns: its for a singular animal, their for plural antecedents, whose inside a relative clause, and three cases where the contraction is right, because the sentence needs "it is," "who is" or the introductory "there" of "there are." In every item the context settles the number of owners, and the explanations show how.

The flashcards give the rule for each form with a short model phrase, list the possessive pronouns that never take an apostrophe, and give a quick test for contractions: expand them, and if "it is" or "they are" does not fit, the possessive is needed.

The material offers two formats: a multiple-choice quiz with an explanation for every question, and a deck of flashcards. It is practice material written by Zestly and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the College Board, which owns the SAT.

  • Form singular, regular plural and irregular plural possessives correctly
  • Recognize a plain plural that needs no apostrophe
  • Choose between its and it's, their, they're and there, and whose and who's
  • Use the context to count the owners before choosing a form
  • Test a contraction by expanding it

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the Standard English Conventions content domain of the digital SAT Reading and Writing section as described by the College Board on satsuite.collegeboard.org (Form, Structure, and Sense). Every sentence, option and explanation is original; nothing is reproduced from any College Board publication or practice test.

Sample question

The writer wrote: "Marie and Pierre Curie shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Henri Becquerel. The two ______ laboratory notebooks from those years are still so radioactive that they are kept in lead-lined boxes." Which choice completes the blank so that the writer's sentences conform to the conventions of Standard English?

See the answer

scientists' (plural possessive, apostrophe after the s)

The notebooks belong to two scientists, so the word must be both plural and possessive. A regular plural ending in s forms its possessive by adding an apostrophe after the s: “the two scientists' notebooks.” The singular possessive would mean one scientist, which contradicts “two.” The plain plural leaves nothing to show ownership before the noun “notebooks.” Adding another s after a plural that already ends in s is not a standard form.

← Standard English Conventions

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