Communities or Community’s or Communities’? (Easy Guide)

Understanding the possessive form is something that doesn’t come easily to English learners. Luckily, this article is here to help. We’ll teach you about the noun “community” and the possessive forms you can expect to use with it.

Communities or Community’s or Communities’: Which Is The Correct Possessive Form?

“Community’s” is the correct possessive form of “community” if you use it in the singular form. However, “communities'” is also a correct possessive form, though it only works in the plural. We can use both forms depending on the amount of “communities” in the context.

It might help you to understand a little more about all the expected forms we’re going to use in this article:

Singular	Community
Plural	Communities
Singular possessive	Community’s
Plural possessive	Communities’

As you can see, the possessive forms follow rules you might already be familiar with.

We include an “‘s” ending after the singular form to show the singular possessive form. Similarly, we include only an apostrophe after the plural form to create the plural possessive form. These are standard noun forms for most possessive words.

Communities

To start, we’ll show you how the plural form looks. It’s by far the easiest of the three forms we will take you through with this article.

“Communities” is the plural form of “community.” We use it when referring to more than one “community.” Since “community” ends with a “Y,” we change the plural ending to “-ies” to accommodate this.

While it might look like “community” changes form when it becomes the plural, this is not the case. In fact, the “-ies” ending is common for most nouns that end with a “Y:”

• Nappy / Nappies
• Lady / Ladies
• Lorry / Lorries

As you can see, the “Y” is almost always replaced in the plural form, and “communities” is no different.

Here’s how you might find the plural form useful:

1. Many communities gathered together to discuss this matter.
2. The communities all disagreed, and no one could come up with a good solution.
3. Many of the communities I’ve been a part of have crashed and burned!
4. These communities think they have all the power!
5. His communities are all the same, but he seems to think they grant him individuality!

“Communities” only works to talk about multiple “communities” as a noun. There is no possession involved in this form (and it’s most common for a verb to follow “communities” rather than an object).

Community’s

The singular possessive form is the easiest possessive form, but it comes with a few more rules we need to know than the plural form did above.

“Community’s” works when talking about one “community” owning an object. We can place the object directly after “community’s” to show what they own. There is always an apostrophe and an “S” present with the singular possessive form of “community.”

It’s easy to understand why we would include the “‘s” for standard words like “community.” After all, the word doesn’t already end with an “S,” and we always use an apostrophe for nouns that are in the possessive form.

You might benefit from checking out the following examples to help you figure out the singular possessive form:

1. The community’s dysfunction was caused by me.
2. This community’s spirit has dwindled in recent years.
3. My community’s power over the way this country operates is sensational.
4. The community’s collective drive to do the right thing stands us out above the rest.
5. This community’s acceptance rate is low, and I don’t fancy trying it and facing rejection!

“Community’s” refers to one “community” owning an object. We can place the object directly after the singular form of “community” to denote this.

Communities’

Finally, let’s go over the plural possessive form. It’s a little less common to come across in the case of “community,” but it’s still correct to use.

“Communities” works when talking about more than one “community” owning an object or group of objects. The possessive form is treated in the same way as the singular possessive form, except that we are talking about multiple subjects at the same time.

The key thing we need to remember here is that the “S” is dropped after the apostrophe. This is standard practice for most plural possessive forms, which makes it a little simpler for us to understand.

There are no times where you should ever include the “S” after the apostrophe with the plural possessive form. The easiest way to remember this is that the word “communities” already ends with an “S” in the plural form, and we add an apostrophe to show possession.

Here are some examples to help you further:

1. The two communities’ leaders had a discussion about that.
2. Both of the communities’ passions were put on the line for this one.
3. All of the communities’ disagreements could have been solved with a simple question and answer session.
4. Each of the communities’ offers was overruled by the main council.
5. The communities’ parallels were too obvious to overcome.

“Communities” works to talk about two or more “communities” owning an object or group of similar objects.

Quiz: Have You Mastered Communities or Community’s or Communities’?

It might help you to see what you’ve learned. That’s why we’ve put together a quiz to see what you’ve gathered from this. The answers will be included in the next section for you to compare against.

1. The (A. communities / B. community’s / C. communities’) spirit is the strongest thing I’ve seen in years.
2. Both of the (A. communities / B. community’s / C. communities’) collective responses to each other were poor.
3. The (A. communities / B. community’s / C. communities’) in this area aren’t desirable.
4. The (A. communities / B. community’s / C. communities’) we have here are not interesting.
5. The (A. communities / B. community’s / C. communities’) secrets are well kept.

Quiz answers

1. B
2. C
3. A
4. A
5. B

Final Thoughts

Luckily, “community” follows all the traditional possessive rules we’ve come to expect. That means we can use “community’s” as the singular possessive form and “communities'” as the plural possessive form. Both are correct in English, and we can use them to show ownership.

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