Apostrophe's Possessive Nouns
The "middling class" include a towns shopkeepers.
Where do you think you should place an apostrophe?
Please see my previous response.
In shopkeepers
No. The shopkeepers don't possess anything in this sentence.
Please try again -- and type the word with the apostrophe in the right place.
In towns'
That's the right word.
But there's only one town. You simply add the 's after town.
town's
To determine the correct use of an apostrophe to show possession in the sentence you provided, you need to identify the possessive noun. In this case, the possessive noun is "towns."
To use an apostrophe to show possession with a singular noun, you typically add an apostrophe and an "s" (e.g., "town's"). However, if the singular noun already ends with an "s," you can simply add an apostrophe alone (e.g., "Charles'").
In the case of plural nouns, if the noun does not end with an "s," you add an apostrophe and an "s" to show possession (e.g., "children's"). But if the plural noun already ends with an "s," you only need to add an apostrophe (e.g., "countries'").
Applying these rules to the given sentence, the correct possessive form of "towns" would be "towns'."
Therefore, the revised sentence would be: "The 'middling class' includes a towns' shopkeepers."