Miss ZOE HOWES
If I am writing about an old person's project does the apostrophe come before or after the s?

The apostrophe comes before the s in all words except those ending in s.
examples:

Joseph's, Thomas', Mathew's, James', children's', child's,

of a person = person's, of a dog = dog's, of dogs = dogs'

If it is about one old person then before, if it is about many old people, then after.

If it is one person, the apostrophe comes before the 's', like this:

The old person's project ended in partial success and he was not fully happy with the results.

Contrast that with talking about many persons, like below:


The three elderly persons' wheelchairs were stolen at the same time.