Compounded nouns that are possessive

A compound noun is made up of two nouns joined by a conjunction, like ‘and’. For instance, ‘John and Mary’ is an example of a compound noun made up of the two nouns ‘John’ and ‘Mary’. There are two situations you need to deal with when you form possessives out of compounded nouns:

When each of the nouns in the compound noun owns their own thing, then you need to turn each of the nouns into a possessive noun.
When all of the nouns in the compound noun together own the thing, then you only need to change the last noun into a possessive noun.

So when each noun owns its own thing:

The fireman’s and policeman’s faces were covered in dust.

The fireman owns a face. The policeman also owns a face (different to the fireman’s).

When the nouns share ownership of something:

Mum and Dad’s business is going well.

The business is a thing that is owned by both Mum and Dad, so we only change the last noun in the compounded noun into the possessive form.

Click here to move on to the next topic: Double possessives