apostrophe

[Unregistered]

If I am typing the following where should the apostrophe be

A play about a grandmothers experience of......

 

[Unregistered]

Hello Can you help please?
If I am typing the following where should the apostrophe be

A play about a grandmothers experience of......

should the apostrophe come before the s in grandmothers it is only one grandmother and the experience belongs to her - or am I completely up the spout?

 

[Hi_there_Carl]

The apostrophe has three uses:

1) to form possessives of nouns
2) to show the omission of letters
3) to indicate certain plurals of lowercase letters.
​

Apostrophes are NOT used for possessive pronouns or for noun plurals, including acronyms.



Your case deals with the first (possessives of nouns:

Forming possessives of nouns

To see if you need to make a possessive, turn the phrase around and make it an "of the..." phrase. For example:

the boy's hat = the hat of the boy three days' journey = journey of three days
​

If the noun after "of" is a building, an object, or a piece of furniture, then no apostrophe is needed!

room of the hotel = hotel room
door of the car = car door
leg of the table = table leg
​

Once you've determined whether you need to make a possessive, follow these rules to create one.

• add 's to the singular form of the word (even if it ends in -s):

the owner's car James's hat
​

• add 's to the plural forms that do not end in -s:

the children's game the geese's honking
​

• add ' to the end of plural nouns that end in -s:

houses' roofs three friends' letters
​

• add 's to the end of compound words:

my brother-in-law's money​

• add 's to the last noun to show joint possession of an object:

Todd and Anne's apartment

so in your case it should be Grandmother's experience
​

 

[Bushwhacker]

I've always thought that if the word ends in "s" this "s" is not written in forming possessives of nouns. For instance, you write "James's hat", and I would have written "James' hat." So could you explain to me this rule, please?

 

[Hi_there_Carl]

According to the rule;

James' hat would indicate more than one James

I know it looks awkward..... but....

James's hat is actually correct to describe the hat belonging to a single person named James. ;-)

 

[mykwyner]

The rule is really simple; spell it like you say it.

If the hat belongs to James it is James's hat because I would say, "Jaymziz hat."

If the cars belong to those boys, they are those boys' cars because I would say, "boyz carz."

 

[Bushwhacker]

I think I understand. So, if we are talking about something belonging to a concret person (We say his name), then the "s" after the apostrophe is required, but if we are talking about something belonging to a common noun (like boys, in plural), the "s" after the apostrophe is not required.
Am I right? Let me ask one more question on that. If we are talking about something belonging to a singular person or thing, a common noun, but it ends with "s", then, should we miss the "s" after the apostrophe?

:-D:up:

 

[Anglika]

No - you need the apostrophe to indicate possession - the boys' car; the grandmothers' experiences; the cows' calves.

Again no. If you have a word ending in an s requiring a possessive, you need 's. The bus's engine; James's hat; Mr Jones's car; the bass's voice

 

[Wuisi]

It's great to have you there. It seems to me that here in Spain teachers teach the rule badly because I had exactly the same idea as Bushwhacker. I thought it was Elvis' guitar (pronounced elvisiz) instead of Elvis's. So thanks because now I've got it right. Can't wait to see my teacher's face.