Behold Goddess'/Goddess's power

[99bottles]

Behold Goddess'/Goddess's power.

Which is the correct possessive form of words ending with an s? I asked that question HERE, but people disagreed and I'm still confused.

 

[Tarheel]

People disagree sometimes. That's life. I think it depends on whether you pronounce the 's or not. Perhaps:

Behold the goddess's power.

Is "Goddess" capitalized because it's somebody's name?

(I would say: "Behold the power of the goddess.")

 

[99bottles]

Is "Goddess" capitalized because it's somebody's name?

No. Since God is capitalized, so is Goddess. Right?

 

[99bottles]

Behold the goddess's power.

Then why, in all dictionaries, it is for goodness' sake instead of for goodness's sake?

 

[Tarheel]

No.

No. Since God is capitalized, so is Goddess. Right?

No. The Christian deity (God) is capitalized, and it's the same in Judaism (G-d). As far as I know, that's it. (The Muslim deity is Allah.) So no, it's not capitalized unless it's somebody's name.

 

[Tarheel]

Then why, in all dictionaries, it is for goodness' sake instead of for goodness's sake?

You say it the same with or without the apostrophe. That's how it winds up in the dictionary that way. In print it's given the apostrophe to show possession, but it's pronounced the same either way.

 

[99bottles]

You say it the same with or without the apostrophe. That's how it winds up in the dictionary that way. In print it's given the apostrophe to show possession, but it's pronounced the same either way.

But according to what you said, it should be goodness's.

 

[Tarheel]

That's because I would pronounce the 's as an additional syllable. That would not be the case with goodness' .

 

[Skrej]

Capitalize god/goddess if it's being used as a name or title. Personally, I still add apostrophe s ('s) whether it's a common or proper noun, if singular. If plural, then then I use only an apostrophe after the 's' (s'). I don't bother with the "proper noun ending in 's'" exceptions. Not everyone would agree with me, and that's okay. It seems to unneccessarily complicate things. Plus, I can probably count on one hand, certainly two, the number of times in my life I've actually encountered this dilemma when writing.

god/god's
goddess/goddess's (singular), goddesses' (plural)

Again, capitalize if a name or title. Just don't use the apostrophe to create the plural itself, or you end up with the so-called 'greengrocer's apostrophe'. Apostrophes are only for possession or contractions, not pluralization.

 

[99bottles]

That's because I would pronounce the 's as an additional syllable. That would not be the case with goodness' .

So, is for goodness' sake an exception?

 

[Tarheel]

No. It's not an exception. As I already explained, that one only has an apostrophe at the end.

 

[99bottles]

No. It's not an exception. As I already explained, that one only has an apostrophe at the end.

But if the meaning is for the sake of goodness, shouldn't it be for goodness's sake? What does it matter if it has one more syllable?

 

[Tarheel]

You were bound to stump me sooner or later. I don't know why it matters. Frankly, I'm not even sure I understand the question.

 

[99bottles]

You were bound to stump me sooner or later. I don't know why it matters. Frankly_ I'm not even sure I understand the question.

In Post#2, you say that Behold the goddess's power is the correct form. (Apostrophe followed by s.)

My question is: If it's for goodness' sake (just apostrophe, without adding an s), why do we add an s with the possessive of goddess?

 

[emsr2d2]

In my opinion, "For goodness' sake" has come about because people are lazy. Many people say "For goodness sake" rather than "For goodnesses sake" (the bold letters are only there to demonstrate the pronunciation) so we've started to write it without that final "s", yet we've kept the apostrophe because we know that technically it's a possessive.

 

[Tdol]

We add the syllable in St James's Park. Some suggest that we should add the syllable with surname, and saint's names as their first names are the names they are known by. So I would go to St James's park with my brother James' dog. It's an issue with grey areas. If you want to camp out on goodness' sake, even though no one adds the syllable, fell free to do so. You can share a tent with people trying to make an absolute rule about the comparative forms of two-syllable adjectives. People aren't absolute, societies aren't absolute, so why should we expect grammar to be absolute?