apostrophe after 's'

[Manoffthetelly]

Hi,
I don't know whether I should be writing "British Gas's first ever use of..." or "British Gas' first ever use of...".
Or, for variety, "Jonathan Ross's new suit" as opposed to "Jonathan Ross' new suit".
I would also value knowing whether this is a matter of style, or rule. I hope you don't mind me asking even though English is my first language.
Many thanks in anticipation!

[aliaa]

Hi there

The s' or 's is not a matter of style, it is a rule. If the noun ends with an s , put only apostrophe after it, if it doesn't , put the apostrophe then s

All of us have problems with our native languages

Originally Posted by Manoffthetelly

Hi,
I don't know whether I should be writing "British Gas's first ever use of..." or "British Gas' first ever use of...".
Or, for variety, "Jonathan Ross's new suit" as opposed to "Jonathan Ross' new suit".
I would also value knowing whether this is a matter of style, or rule. I hope you don't mind me asking even though English is my first language.
Many thanks in anticipation!

IT`S THE GRAMMAR RULE Of THE GENITIVE CASE

If we have a plural form ending in -s, we add only the apostrophe, as in the following example: the boys` bikes

With proper names the situation is different :

The Blakes` mansion - The Blakes is a plural noun[the members of the Blake family]
Mrs Woods`s purse --Mrs Woods is an ordinary person
Cervantes` novels - Cervantes is a well-known foreign writer who died a long time ago
Pythagoras` Theorem - Pythagoras is considered to be a classical[man]
but
Dickens`s prose style - Dickens is famous and died a long time ago but he is English.

Consequently, we can conclude by saying that only the apostrophe is used with classical names [ Roman and Greek] and famous foreign names [ not English] which refer to people who died a long time ago.

Thus, you should be writing : "British Gas's first ever use of..." and "Jonathan Ross's new suit"

Nevertheless, there have been some changes lately regarding these rules, so, you can also say or write "British Gas` first ever use.." without being considered a major mistake,or, at least, this is my opinion on that.
All the best

[Tdol]

Some say that foreign names and surnames should take the second 's', but it's an area that is rapidly becoming a matter of personal choice.