Teachers or Teacher’s or Teachers’ (English Grammar Explained)

Grammar / By

Teachers is the plural for teacher. Teacher’s is the singular possessive form of teacher. Teachers’ is the plural possessive form of teachers. 

Teachers or teacher’s or teachers’ are all pronounced the same way.

Teachers

We use teachers when we want to make the word “teacher” plural.

So it is:

I have one teacher.

I have two teachers. 

Teacher’s 

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

This is my teacher’s house.

We need to look after our teacher’s plant.

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

This is John’s house.

We need to look after John’s plant.

Teachers’ 

Teachers’ is the plural possessive form of teachers. 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 the teachers’ room.

In this case, many of our teachers use this room to prepare for classes and have breaks.

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

Is it teacher’s or teachers’ birthday?

Teacher’s birthday is usually correct because it is the birthday of one teacher. 

Is it teacher’s or teachers’ day?

Teachers’ day is correct because we are talking about teachers in the plural.

Is it teacher’s or teachers’ lounge/room?

Teachers’ lounge/room is correct because we are talking about teachers in the plural.

Is it teacher’s or teachers’ union?

Teachers’ union is correct because we are talking about teachers in the plural.

 

Conor
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