Somebody's vs. Somebodies — What's the Difference?

"Somebody's" is a contraction that's primarily used to denote possession. It combines "somebody" and "is" or shows ownership, akin to "someone's." For instance, "somebody's book" means a book that belongs to an unspecified person. On the other hand, "somebodies" doesn't imply ownership but plurality. It signifies multiple unspecified individuals.

"Somebody's" is widely employed when the owner of an item or a trait is unknown or not specified. For example, if you found a jacket at a park, you might say, "Somebody's jacket is lying on the bench." In contrast, "somebodies" would be used to refer to more than one unspecified person. An example might be, "There were somebodies at the door earlier," indicating there were multiple people, but their identities aren't specified.

In grammar, "somebody's" is a possessive pronoun. It serves to assign possession of something to an unidentified individual. On the flip side, "somebodies" is simply the plural form of the pronoun "somebody." It doesn't assign possession but merely indicates there's more than one "somebody."

To give more context, consider this: if you're talking about an action that an unknown individual did, you might say, "Somebody's been here." You're not sure who, but you know someone has. On the other hand, if you're referring to multiple unknown persons in a general context, you would say, "They're just somebodies trying to make a name for themselves."