I've always been taught that s's is correct except for Moses' and Jesus'. (I just checked the Little, Brown Handbook, which agrees with that and also adds that if the same is a plural already, like Rivers, then it just becomes Rivers'.)
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Cordelia ,'Lessons'
The Great Write Way
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Hil R. - Nov 18, 2002 9:37:02 am PST #327 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
Rebecca Lizard - Nov 18, 2002 9:39:33 am PST #328 of 10001
You sip / say it's your crazy / straw say it's you're crazy / as you bicycle your soul / with beauty in your basket
I've always been taught that s's is correct except for Moses' and Jesus'. (I just checked the Little, Brown Handbook, which agrees with that and also adds that if the same is a plural already, like Rivers, then it just becomes Rivers'.)
How very, very strange. Why was I taught that? It *was* a Catholic school, and "Jesus" *was* one of the examples.... Why do Jesus and Moses have honorary plurality, just because they're shiny?
Jesse - Nov 18, 2002 9:39:54 am PST #329 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
Certainly in Bridget Jones' Diary they use s'.
Nuh-uh. At least in the version here in the US, it's "Jones's"
Hil R. - Nov 18, 2002 9:41:05 am PST #330 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
Why do Jesus and Moses have honorary plurality, just because they're shiny?
Try saying Moses's or Jesus's. Your tongue gets stuck in a sort of Moseseseseses thing. It's because of the double s already at the end.
P.M. Marc - Nov 18, 2002 9:42:08 am PST #331 of 10001
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
IIRC, AP style for single possessive proper nouns ending with s is 's.
I know it annoys me, and that it's something that's shifted since I started writing, because I know damned well that all my things had ---s' written on them. (I think a shift in rule that affects your name is more annoying than any other.)
Jesse - Nov 18, 2002 9:43:15 am PST #332 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
People at work use s' -- our ED's name ends with s -- and it irks me, because then it looks like his name is plural, if you know what I mean.
Rebecca Lizard - Nov 18, 2002 9:43:55 am PST #333 of 10001
You sip / say it's your crazy / straw say it's you're crazy / as you bicycle your soul / with beauty in your basket
Okay, so, it's not just an obscure religious act of honor. So any other English word with the same s-situation would have the same deal?
This is so fucking weird. I've never noticed I was off. Think of all the papers and stories I've written with the wrong things in! I want to march back to the nuns that taught me and complain.
P.M. Marc - Nov 18, 2002 9:44:48 am PST #334 of 10001
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
Technically, my name is plural, so I still s' any labels I may make.
Hil R. - Nov 18, 2002 9:47:09 am PST #335 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
So any other English word <tried to think of one, fails> with the same s-situation would have the same deal?
Yep. But I don't think there are any other English words with that pattern. At least, no terribly common ones.
erikaj - Nov 18, 2002 9:47:38 am PST #336 of 10001
Always Anti-fascist!
I think I was always taught 's, but then I have spent a fair amount of time with AP Style, so it could be my thinking is muddy. So, from me it would be, say, Pleiades' Wesley fics.