Should people’s lives have an apostrophe?


  1. Should people’s lives have an apostrophe?
  2. How do you use people’s correctly?

Should people’s lives have an apostrophe?

“Improving people’s lives.” The word people is already plural so it only needs an apostrophe-s to become possessive. As Tina D mentions, if you are using the word peoples to refer to plural whole populations, then you can use peoples’ – but that is not the way the word would typically be used.

How do you use people’s correctly?

Both are correct: “People’s” is used when “People” is taken as a whole, as a singular noun showing a group of people. “Peoples’” is used when “Peoples” is taken as a plural noun showing various groups of people, not one group, but several groups of people, meaning plural of plural, Peoples.