[Grammar] Possessive s

[virus99]

Hi forum.

Here a quote from CNN:

Baghdatis' reward was a semifinal against France's Julien Benneteau, who won 6-2 6-4 against U.S-based Russian Alex Bogomolov Jr.

The player's name is Marcos Baghdatis. Shouldn't it be Baghdatis's reward...?

Thanks for helping!

 

[SirGod]

* Not a teacher

No. When the word ends in "s" you do not add the possessive "s" (also called Saxon genitive) anymore, just the apostrophe.

 

[virus99]

Argh. There seem to be more rules for this. This is what I found in an English grammar section:

Charles's toys.

It says that after names (singular) that end with s we use another 's.

Could it be that there are two valid rules for this matter? Or is this another American English - English -English issue? Or should I just go and buy another grammar book?

 

[bhaisahab]

Argh. There seem to be more rules for this. This is what I found in an English grammar section:

Charles's toys.

It says that after names (singular) that end with s we use another 's.

Could it be that there are two valid rules for this matter? Or is this another American English - English -English issue? Or should I just go and buy another grammar book?

There is no rule. I use an apostrophe after the "s", others will add apostrophe followed by "s".

 

[virus99]

So both forms are correct and I myself can decide what to take?

Baghdatis' reward Charles' toys
Baghdatis's reward Charles's toys

Only thing is to be constant then....

 

[riquecohen]

So both forms are correct and I myself can decide what to take? Yes.

Baghdatis' reward Charles' toys
Baghdatis's reward Charles's toys

Only thing is to be constant then....

Yes. Be consistent.

 

[Rover_KE]

You can browse the links here if you want more examples and opinions.

Rover

 

[philo2009]

Hi forum.

Here a quote from CNN:

Baghdatis' reward was a semifinal against France's Julien Benneteau, who won 6-2 6-4 against U.S-based Russian Alex Bogomolov Jr.

The player's name is Marcos Baghdatis. Shouldn't it be Baghdatis's reward...?

Thanks for helping!

Normal practice is to add only an apostrophe after a single s, but 's after a double s. Thus e.g.

Charles' friends

but

Tess's mother.

 

[5jj]

Normal practice is to add only an apostrophe after a single s, but 's after a double s. Thus e.g.

Charles' friends....but''''Tess's mother.

COCA has 931 examples of James's and 330 of James', so it appears that 's is more common in both cases.

 

[philo2009]

The omission of the 's' may well be more common in AmE. It is, however, clearly not a point worth arguing about.

EOC

 

[konungursvia]

I follow Strunk & White on this; I like their concision.

 

[5jj]

The omission of the 's' may well be more common in AmE. It is, however, clearly not a point worth arguing about.

It may not be worth arguing about, but the Corpus of Contemporary English suggests that the omission of the apostrophe is far less common in American English.