Comments on: Is It Plural or Possessed? When to Use Apostrophe -S

By: Melissa Donovan

Melissa Donovan — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:20:40 +0000

Hi R.S. I appreciate your input, but it’s not quite accurate. The Chicago Manual of Style specifically provides the following examples for possessives: Kansas’s legislature, Burns’s poems, Strauss’s Vienna, Dickens’s novels, etc. There are exceptions, notably for names “of two or more syllables that end in an eez sound.” Examples include the following: Euripides’ tragedies, the Ganges’ source, Xerxes’ armies. Interestingly, this style guide also notes that both of the following are correct: for Jesus’ sake (and) Jesus’s contemporaries.

You’ll notice that the rule is derived from pronunciation. If you add and pronounce “-ess” at the end of a possessive word (to indicate possession), then it takes the apostrophe-s, even if already ends with an s.

Writing “Chris’s shoe” is therefore correct. However, there may be other style guides that use different standards. Again, this is more of a style issue than a hard and fast grammar rule, but I think we should strive to write in a manner that reflects pronunciation (whenever possible), which is why I support the rules set forth by both Chicago and Strunk & White.

By: R.S

R.S — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:39:21 +0000

When something ends with an “s” and it’s a belonging, you should put s’.
Your example for: Chris’ shoe is correct.

It cannot be “Chris’s shoe” because then that would be “Chris is shoe”.

Hope that helped

By: Melissa Donovan

Melissa Donovan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:28:58 +0000

Yep, you’re right. It should be Men’s Department because it’s possessive (the department belongs to the men). However, the Juniors Department could go either way. Here’s why: The word “Juniors” could be functioning as a modifier (adjective) describing what type of department it is — it’s a Juniors Department. It’s plural because it’s for all juniors (not just one). On the other hand, you could say it’s like the Men’s Department and belongs to the juniors. Now, if it belongs to all the juniors, it should be Juniors’ Department. If it belongs to just one junior, it should be Junior’s Department. Tough call. I think the best way would be Juniors’ Department. In a department store, Juniors’ Department and Men’s Department would be consistent.

By: chuckster

chuckster — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:09:26 +0000

What do you use for a retail dept sign?

Mens or Men’s

Juniors or Junior’s

If the sign says Men’s Dept. then I understand the use of the apostrophe, but when just the word MENS is used there is a debate.

By: Melissa Donovan

Melissa Donovan — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:14:05 +0000

Thanks! I hope you continue to find it helpful.

By: Shake

Shake — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:09:35 +0000

This actually clears up a bit, I’m bookmarking the site now

By: millar prescott

millar prescott — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:52:32 +0000

I just found your site via BlogRush. Excellent. Thank you.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 06:29:24 +0000

Thanks for the article!

One of my pet peeves is when people do these thing incorrectly…such dolts.

Keep up the good work!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:53:53 +0000

Ah yes, the double-s ending. That would require adding an -es to the end of course. A good thing to keep in mind, and I will for when this article is updated.

When a name ends in “s,” you would normally show possession by adding the apostrophe-s ending. The exception is for classical and biblical names such as Jesus and Moses, which would appear as Jesus’ and Moses’.

As for what I think… I think Chris’s shoe looks and sounds better than Chris’ shoe. You’re going to pronounce that possessive “s” so you might as well write it out.

Jim and Brent, thanks for visiting!

By: BrentD

BrentD — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 02:24:39 +0000

I was taught in high school that in the case of a word ending in s pluralization is shown by an apostrophe following the s.

Such as “It was Chris’ shoe.”

Imagine my surprise when upon entering college after a long hiatus, my professor instructed me to use an apostrophe s.

Such as “It was Chris’s shoe.”

It still seems weird to me. What do you think?

By: Jim Murdoch

Jim Murdoch — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:50:13 +0000

Nice wee article. The one thing I would have added is what to do when the noun ends in an s, or a double-s, like ‘princess’. This is covered quite nicely in the Wikipedia article under the subheading: Singular nouns ending in s, z, or x.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe