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I have the following sentence:

Joe got everyone's attention and started to speak.

Should it be everyone's, everyones' or everyones?

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3 Answers

up vote 17 down vote accepted

As Robusto says, you should use everyone’s. Neither everyones’ nor everyones is a word.

Note that everyone is always singular and cannot be pluralized, which means everyones is incorrect. If everyones were a word, everyones’ would be the possessive form of everyones, but since everyones is incorrect, everyones’ is also incorrect.

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Makes sense -- thanks! – Joe Casadonte Dec 2 '10 at 2:42
+1 for since everyones is incorrect everyones' is also incorrect – InfantPro'Aravind' Dec 2 '10 at 5:04
up vote 4 down vote

It should be everyone's.

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Thanks, Robusto! – Joe Casadonte Dec 2 '10 at 2:41
up vote -4 down vote

"Everyone's" means "everyone is." Everyones is the possessive, not the plural, form of everyone (everyone is already plural). With pronouns, the apostrophe is not used to indicate possession, e.g., "it's" means "it is" while "its" shows possession (The dog wants its bone).

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3  
-1. You are wrong on all accounts. The possessive form of everybody is everybody's, the possessive form of one is one's, and the possessive form of everyone is everyone's. (And only a couple generations ago, it's was the possessive form of it.) – RegDwighт♦ Aug 5 '12 at 21:30

protected by RegDwighт♦ Aug 5 '12 at 21:30

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