Is "s's" correct now?

[joacqin]

In school I learnt Chris' but when I went to university I learnt that Chris's is the correct way, at least for now. I believe it is changing though and we are seeing and will see a lot more Chris'. As Mesoy said, in fiction and the like Chris' is vastly more used than Chris's and the "correct" way is the way most people use.

 

[Renata]

@ Renata - I'm neither British nor American. I learned my English by reading waaaaay too many books. Tell me all the English books in a Norwegian library have the wrong grammar. Go on, I dare you

I'm not saying the books you read were wrong. I'm saying there are two accepted ways of punctuating such things, and that the way you're familiar with is probably British usage. Whereas I am familiar with the American usage (as exemplified by the Strunk and White extracts posted earlier), so that this:

Chris' ball.

looks strange.

Renata

 

[CurtSibling]

When I take power, bad grammar will land you in the Arena!

 

[phoenix_night]

Three pages to establish what was written in the third post.

I'm not saying the books you read were wrong. I'm saying there are two accepted ways of punctuating such things, and that the way you're familiar with is probably British usage. Whereas I am familiar with the American usage (as exemplified by the Strunk and White extracts posted earlier), so that this:

"Chris' ball."

looks strange.

Renata

In Britain: s's is used.

 

[M37]

Ok I've checked my Canadian Press style book

It says that singular and plural nows i not ending in S take an apostoprhe and s to form the possesive.
farther's pipe

2. Plural nowns ending in s take an apostophe alone
teachers' apples

3.Singualr nowns ending in s (or s sound) noromaly tak an 's to indicate a sis or siz sound. but if adding the xtra s would make the word hard to say or grate on the ear, use an aporsrophe alone.
Chris's sandwich.

4.names inding in a silent s or x take an apostrophe and s
Duplessis's cabinet.

(apperently I was incorrect before)

 

[WillJ]

The filthy hobbits's

Hobbits is not singular, thus it'd be hobbits'. (Unless of course there's a guy named Hobbits, in which case the possessive form would indeed be Hobbits's.)

 

[ummmm........]

If you think about it phonetically, the extra "s" makes sense:

Whose dead steak is that? Chris's. (pronounced "Chris-ez")

Whose dead cockroach is that? The ants'. (pronounced "ants")

 

[cgannon64]

Also, MS Word 2002 SP3, being the "supreme judge of grammer" that it is.......
seems to accept both.... guess they didn't wanna spark controversy.

No way. Word sucks at grammar. Alot.

 

[Emp.Napoleon]

My English teacher says names are s' unless they are "really old dead guys" like Jesus's Moses's and so on.

 

[Sims2789]

In the US, this is correct:

Chris'
Marx's
American's (as in one American)
Americans' (as in more than one American or the America people's)

Basically, if it ends in s, just add an apostrophe, not another s. However, one should pronounce these words as if the word "is" is attached to their ends (at least for Standard American English but I'd guess it's that way for other forms of English too).

 

[Falcon02]

No way. Word sucks at grammar. Alot.

I apologize, I guess I didn't make the sarcasm in that statement as obvious as I wanted.

EDIT: I way Sims discribed it was the way I learned it, it's seperate from "singluar" and plural, just does the root word (before the possesive) end with 's' or not particularly names.

 

[cgannon64]

I apologize, I guess I didn't make the sarcasm in that statement as obvious as I wanted.

OK, glad we're agreed.

I've seen Word get verb-subject agreement wrong.

 

[Asclepius]

So what about the possesive for sheep? Sheep's? Sheep' ?.... oh I give up...

 

[Dragonlord]

...to tell you the truth I really can't tell you which way is write. .

Yeah.... right!

 

[Yom]

In the US, this is correct:

Chris'
Marx's
American's (as in one American)
Americans' (as in more than one American or the America people's)

Basically, if it ends in s, just add an apostrophe, not another s. However, one should pronounce these words as if the word "is" is attached to their ends (at least for Standard American English but I'd guess it's that way for other forms of English too).

That is incorrect. Only add a single apostrophe (and no "s") if the noun that you are making possessive is plural. Otherwise, (i.e. the noun is singular) always add " 's" to the end of the nount to make it possessive.

So what about the possesive for sheep? Sheep's? Sheep' ?.... oh I give up...

"The sheep's" in both cases, as the plural form of sheep is also "sheep." Since it does not end in "s" as a plural noun, add " 's" just like if it were singular.


This isn't that difficult. I am 100% sure as to the correct punctuation, but no one seems to want to listen to me.

 

[Fetus4188]

So what about the possesive for sheep? Sheep's? Sheep' ?.... oh I give up...

sheep's, children's, cattle's, dogs', cats', etc.,

 

[Moss]

Yeah.... right!

Hmm...common mistake...happens to the best of us.

 

[Scuffer]

So what about the possesive for sheep? Sheep's? Sheep' ?.... oh I give up...

Are we talking a single sheep, or multiple sheep?

I have also heard of people getting very possesive of sheep, incidently.

 

[Fetus4188]

It doesn't matter if it is single or multiple, both cases is sheep's

Any plural that ends in a syllable not ending with an s, children, for example, still gets the full 's.

 

[Scuffer]

True, I was just looking for something to hang a sheep joke off.