Girlfriends or Girlfriend’s or Girlfriends’ (English Grammar Explained)

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Girlfriends is the plural for Girlfriend. Girlfriend’s is the singular possessive form of girlfriend. Girlfriends’ is the plural possessive form of girlfriends. 

Girlfriends or Girlfriend’s or Girlfriends’ are all pronounced the same way.

Because “Girlfriends” is usually singular, “Girlfriend’s”’ is usually correct. 

Girlfriends

We use girlfriends when we want to make the word “Girlfriend” plural.

So it is:

I have one girlfriend.

I have two girlfriends. 

Girlfriend’s 

Girlfriend’s is the singular possessive form of girlfriend. We use the possessive form of girlfriend when we want to show that one Girlfriend owns something.

This is my girlfriend’s house.

I need to look after my girlfriend’s plant.

Remember we are talking about only one girlfriend. You can replace girlfriend’s with a name if that makes it easier to understand.

This is Jane’s house.

We need to look after Jane’s plant.

Girlfriends’ 

Girlfriends’ is the plural possessive form of girlfriends. When the noun already ends in “s” and we want to make the word possessive, we need to put the apostrophe after the “s”.

This is our Girlfriends’ house.

In this case, many(more than one) of our girlfriends live in the house and they own the house together.

In spoken English, it can be difficult to know whether you are talking about one girlfriend or many girlfriends in the possessive because girlfriend’s and girlfriends’ sound exactly the same.

My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend?

If you want to talk about a friend of your Girlfriend it is better to use the person’s name.

Jessica is my girlfriend’s friend.

Remember “Girlfriend” is usually used for romantic relationships. “Girl friend” can be used to show that somebody is a boy and a friend.  

 

Conor
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