Learn English – utility’s VS utilities VS utility

grammar

If I would like to express the following:

"Have a look at the impacts in Cologne, where one of our pilot utility's is located."

Is that correct or should I use "utility" or "utilities"? I am not sure, because on the one hand there are more than one utilities, but on the other hand it sounds also fine in singular.

Best Answer

When you put an apostrophe, it can only represent two things:

  1. Possession, e.g, Alex's bag.
  2. To shorten a word, e.g haven't.

If you were to say "utility's" it would mean that the utility is owning something. I assume that that's not the case, and you were talking about the pilot utilities, plural form of utility, without an apostrophe. Thus, utilities should be the correct word to use.

You said, "one of our", which means there is more than one utility. If there is only one utility, you would say "our pilot utility".

Finally, the correct sentence would be:

Have a look at the impacts in Cologne, where one of our pilot utilities is located.

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