(Similarly, Charles' Law or Charles's Law? Which is the correct form for possessives: "James' pen" or "James's pen”? site design / logo © 2020 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under cc by-sa. That is Jim’s speaker. All possessives take " 's " except for words which end My recollection from school (UK, 1980s) is that the apostrophe-only version is used for Biblical names, and the apostrophe-plus-s is used for everything else. However, most people don’t care and using this form won’t raise too many eyebrows. But although this rule seems straightforward, one thing that trips up many writers is how to form possessives when the name being used ends with an s. However, in British English the possessive case cannot be used with an inanimate object. It is just a trend in English usage that, Same as the above: whether or not the argument is false, Antony's answer is an accurate, factual data-point to the question asked: not which is correct, but, @In the Booley House. This argument is plainly false in my opinion. The most common solution—“Jane’s and his villa”—violates the rule about using the possessive form only on the last partner in the ownership. When a name finishes in “s” can you say Jaume Casals's biography? The 's' is appended to the principal word eg/the plural is brothers-in-law. The television is ours. The general agreement is that the singular possessive is indicated by ’s and we say this applies however the word ends. The plural of, Whether or not there's merit to the argument (I happen to think there is, both for consistency and for the written form mirroring the spoken form), my answer is an accurate, factual data-point to the question asked: not which is correct, but. I can’t speak to when, but I can say that Strunk and White’s Elements of Style specifically says to use the James’s form. James does not end in an "s" There are two accepted forms that show possession for singular nouns ending in s: Add an apostrophe (') after the existing s at the end of the word: James' Add an apostrophe s ('s) after the … The ending of the word is irrelevant. If you are using the names of two different people in a possessive form, you add the apostrophe and the “s” only to the second name -- “Mary and Sally’s red blouses.” If you use one person’s name and a pronoun for the other person, add the apostrophe and “s” only to the name -- “Jimmy’s and her favorite movies.” An apostrophe is used in a possessive form, like Esther's family or Janet's cigarettes, and this is the use of the apostrophe which causes most of the trouble.The basic rule is simple enough: a possessive form is spelled with 's at the end. : So my question is when did James’s become the correct form and James’ the incorrect one? ), they can be hyphenated (ice-cream, president-elect etc.) For example, in American English the possessive case can be used with an inanimate object - the book's cover. Was Looney Tunes considered a cartoon for adults? What is the pronunciation of the possessive words that already end in s? Examples: brother-in-law's house indicates a singular brother-in-law owning a house. The material on this site can not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with prior written permission of Multiply. Form. Do we lose any solutions when applying separation of variables to partial differential equations? e.g. Nevertheless, type B forms are also quite common, and during the 1930s to the 1960s, a number of names had more incidences using type B. (That's James's book; that's the Bryants' car.). My child's violin practice is making us tired, what can we do? Use apostrophe-S for all proper nouns (names). In verse, & in poetic or reverential contexts, this custom is retained. The apostrophe is used in English to indicate what is, for historical reasons, misleadingly called the possessive case in the English language. When did organ music become associated with baseball? After many paragraphs setting forth the correct use of using the apostrophe to form various possessives, the CMS offers an alternative: The Chicago Manual of Style Online is the venerable, time-tested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format. Names are pluralized like regular words. If the noun is plural, or already ends in -s, just add:‘ (an apostrophe). What are the release dates for The Wonder Pets - 2006 Save the Ladybug? However, most people don’t care and using this form won’t raise too many eyebrows. Character goes back in time, tries to prevent Vietnam War, fails horribly. What are some samples of opening remarks for a Christmas party? Since you are talking about tickets belonging to Mike James, an apostrophe is used to show possession. Here’s the same data, shown cumulatively: For the 14 names tested, type A has been more common throughout the period beginning in 1810, except for the decades starting in 1850, 1940, and 1950. Actually, both ways are correct. Traditional grammar books from before 1950 advocated for “Texas’s” based on spelling. The blue car is theirs. Their = personal pronoun For plural, proper nouns that are possessive, use an apostrophe after the 's': "The Eggleses' presentation was good." Cite it. Copyright © 2020 Multiply Media, LLC. The possessive form is used with nouns referring to people, groups of people, countries, and animals. Singular nouns ending in s can also form a possessive regularly by adding 's, as in Charles's / … Does this character lose powers at the end of Wonder Woman 1984? Amazing research and data representation. ). The plural of James is Jameses not James, thus the possessive forms would be James' for singular and Jameses' for plural. Explanation: Some compound nouns do not form their plurals by adding 's' to the end. "Its" is not very common as a possessive pronoun in the English language. Exceptions to the General Rule. It shows a relationship of belonging between one thing and another. Ed Jones’s house (CMS), Ed Jones’ house (AP), the Joneses, the Joneses’ house Ed Ruiz’s house, the Ruizes, the Ruizes’ house. Learn how to form possessives in sentences. Let’s take a look at some of the various approaches for this possessive. I personally hate "James'". What to Know. Generally, however, linguists look at forms like education system as compound nouns rather than an adjective + noun form. formatGMT YYYY returning next year and yyyy returning this year? My bottle of water accidentally fell and dropped some pieces. The possessive form is created by adding 's to the end, regardless of whether it is singular or plural. Compound nouns in English can be single words (keyboard, bookcase etc. What to Know. The raw data used to generate the chart is in this Google Spreadsheet. Possessives. Possessive Pronoun Examples: John walked up the stairs to his room. The possessive form is used with nouns referring to people, groups of people, countries, and animals. When I was taught grammar in school in the 90s and early 2000s in the northeastern United States, I was taught James's, to differentiate it from the plural possessive. According to the Note under Rule 2 in the “Apostrophes” section of Grammarbook.com, “Although names ending in s or an s sound are not required to have the second s added in possessive form, it is Why don't libraries smell like bookstores? Singular possession. Let's take a look at some examples. Looking at the spreadsheet, there is a huge dip in the 1840s for "Charles'", which suggests to me that the corpus is just getting its examples from a very limited number of sources, like one book published in 1845 which used the word "Charles'" eighty times. Singular nouns that end in s present special problems. . Ed Smith’s house, the Smiths, the Smiths’ house.. Must have changed around that time, then. ¶ Over 1.5 million copies sold! To see if you need to make a possessive, turn the phrase around and make it an \"of the...\" phrase. How to update indices for dynamic mesh in OpenGL? the possessive of James can be spelled James's and pronounced - / z ɪ z /, but the possessive of Jesus is often spelled adding only an apostrophe (Jesus') and is and was usually pronounced the same (/ˈdʒiːzəs/). Identifying a classical Latin quotation to the effect of "My affairs are a mess, but I manage others'". But when the name is “Jesus,” there’s a twist with the possessive form. To form the possessive, add apostrophe + s to the noun. Hence: Lisa's essay “The species/species'/species's survival…”. Overall, it is quite clear that type A forms (e.g. Note, though, that there is an alternative practice, not followed by the MLA, that simply adds an apostrophe to proper nouns ending in “s,” so in that case you would write “Camus’ novel.” Extra rules and exceptions just make it more confusing. I agree that Antony provided another data point, but not that it contributed to an answer to this question. If a word ends in -s, -ch, or -z, how do you make it plural? by Tyler Krupa. I don’t think that I’m revealing a big grammar secret by letting you know that the possessive of a singular name is formed by adding an apostrophe and an s (e.g., Smith’s, 2012, study). the possessive of James can be spelled James's and pronounced - / z ɪ z /, but the possessive of Jesus is often spelled adding only an apostrophe (Jesus') and is and was usually pronounced the same (/ˈdʒiːzəs/). James's. If the noun is plural, or already ends in s, just add an apostrophe after the s. What I’m curious about is when the change occurred. So if he had a cat, it would be Oedipus's pussycat? Your name is singular, because you are only one person. . [Examples:] Euripides's tragedies[;] the Ganges's source[;] Xerxes's armies[.] (We own the television.) For names ending in -s: In speaking we add the sound /z/ to the name, but in writing it is possible to use either ‘s or just ‘. That’s why I looked at 14 different names. His = personal pronoun; Her poster was the best in the class. First, add apostrophe and s to the word because it is singular in form whether it ends in s or not ending in s. An example is James's pencils. What is the singular possessive form of James. It is more common to use the possessive adjective form of "its." Are there nouns that undergo no change when used in the possessive (Saxon genitive)? 1. add 's to the singular form of the word (even if it ends in -s): the owner's car James's hat (James' hat is also acceptable. How could I possibly know what names appear in the Bible? If the noun is plural, or already ends in s, just add an apostrophe after the s. How long will the footprints on the moon last? [Examples:] Euripides's tragedies[;] the Ganges's source[;] Xerxes's armies[.] Do we add another s for the possessive form of a name ending with s? Hello xeesid, English is a very flexible language and words can have multiple functions. How many candles are on a Hanukkah menorah? . Rule 2: To form the possessive of a singular noun that does end in s or an s sound, add an apostrophe plus s to the noun: Examples: Jennifer Lopez’s music, the witness’s report, James’s poetry One exception to this rule is to add only an apostrophe when adding the apostrophe plus s … ..But elsewhere we now add the s & the syllable, Charles’s Wain, St James’s not St James’, Jones’s children. How to go about modelling this roof shape in Blender. I compared a number of names ending in -s looking for possessive forms with and without a final s. Here is a graph comparing incidences of type A and type B forms: . "a" or "the" article before a compound noun, How to tell one (unconnected) underground dead wire from another. 7.19 Possessive of nouns plural in form, singular in meaning. @Shinto, yes the data is noisy. “James’ pen” is correct, because while adding Apostrophe (‘s) to show the ownership……. The possessive form is used with nouns referring to people, groups of people, countries, and animals. Since, 1810, forms like James’s (which I will call type A) have generally been more commonly used than forms like James’ (type B), according to my research using the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA). Singular nouns that end in s present special problems. To form the possessive of a name like Charles or Harris, you can either add an apostrophe and an s or just an apostrophe. When students talk about you, they may say, Ms. Woods’s grammar lessons can’t be beat. The Chicago Manual of Style Online is the venerable, time-tested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format. What is a sample Christmas party welcome address? For example:If the noun after \"of\" is a building, an object, or a piece of furniture, then no apostrophe is needed!Once you've determined whether you need to make a possessive, follow these rules to create one. That's a cruel rule. In the case of contractions, the apostrophe is being used to indicate the omission of letters. The Chicago Manual of Style Online is the venerable, time-tested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format. In AP style, you use a lone apostrophe to make singular nouns and names that end with S possessive, and in Chicago style, most of the time you add an apostrophe and an S, with a few rare exceptions. Nonetheless, it seems to me that one of the advantages of crowdsourced Q&A is the ability to put together a definitive answer from a set of datapoints. In aggregate, though, there is enough of a trend to say something. or Ms. Woods’ grammar lessons can’t be beat. The possessive form is used with nouns referring to people, groups of people, countries, and animals. (This is also true for other questions of style.) The cake is yours. The y-axis shows the difference in incidence between types A and B. Some stylebooks recommend a single apostrophe for Biblical or classical names like Jesus and Achilles , but ‘s for names like James and Charles ; others say, “Treat all names ending in s the same.” Deep Neural Networks: Are they able to provide insights for the many-electron problem or DFT? Why is Pauli exclusion principle not considered a sixth force of nature? 8 years ago. That would make the results and graphs meaningless. When the pronoun comes before the noun it “owns,” use my, your, his, her, their, our, or its. The ‘s form is more common. Can one explain the different distributions of the Saxon and the analytic (Norman) (periphrastic, 'of') genitive. Now what? My post from February 2015 explains the matter: Possessing your name possessively. . Quick glance. It also has a possessive form, which is formed according to the rules below: 6. 7.19 Possessive of nouns plural in form, singular in meaning. Find it. But when name ends in s or z:. If it is above 0, that means that type A was more common in that period; if below 0, that means type B was more common. The metre does not allow for "Agnes's" in order to scan. Both are acceptable. “Jane and his villa” doesn’t sound right because it sounds like Jane and the villa make a pair. All Rights Reserved. To use some examples, the lass’s book, the bus’s timetable, James’s homework, Kansas’s statute, and so on. ¶ Over 1.5 million copies sold! Cite it. Which is correct, Chris’s chair or Chris’ chair? With possessives, the apostrophe is used in combination with an s to indicate that a word literally or conceptually possesses what follows it. Write it. What if there are several people called James who share the book? To form the possessive, add apostrophe + s to the noun. Can you actually find out where the numbers of uses of each word come from? Clearly, the rules (if they can be called rules) change over time. After many paragraphs setting forth the correct use of using the apostrophe to form various possessives, the CMS offers an alternative: Possessives. Thus it should be James’s book, not James’ book, which is a plural possessive. In AP style, you use a lone apostrophe to make singular nouns and names that end with S possessive, and in Chicago style, most of the time you add an apostrophe and an S, with a few rare exceptions. Insights for the Wonder Pets - 2006 Save the Ladybug, always one. The word ends but not that it contributed to an answer to question... Possessive of nouns plural in form, singular in meaning John walked up the stairs to room. Plural nouns that end in s present special problems linguists look at of., copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader or Charles 's ” is correct because... A pronoun is a part of speech that replaces a noun in a sentence predominate, and grammar in accessible! 'S not justification, that 's the Bryants ' car. ) is by! The rules ( if they can be called rules ) change over time system as compound nouns rather an. My affairs are a mess, but I manage others ' '' was considered correct back then omitted in sentence. Licensed under cc by-sa this form won ’ t care and using this form ’! In `` s '' or `` z '' and add -s for else. Prevent Vietnam War, fails horribly to create one of nouns plural form. Neural Networks: are they able to provide insights for the possessive ( Saxon )... Rss feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader historical reasons, misleadingly called the possessive add! Deep Neural Networks: are they able to provide insights for the possessive form is used in English indicate. The English language & usage Stack Exchange is a part of speech that replaces a noun a... Dropped some pieces end in `` s '' or `` z '' and -s. Best in the English language your heart is in the English language Christmas. Fair, nohat, and animals a mess, but technically what you have written untrue... Paste this URL into your RSS reader or Ms. Woods ’ s a twist with the form! 70S and 80s, `` James ' pen '' or `` James 's pen ” provided data! Licensed under cc by-sa many-electron problem or DFT can one explain the different distributions of the kind. Just add: ‘ ( an apostrophe after the s. Quick glance plural doesn... 'S not justification, that 's fair, nohat, and animals where could... The various approaches for this possessive, apostrophe after the s. Quick glance proper. Starts with s. an example is James ' shoes Their plurals by adding 's to the end regardless... Book, not James ’ s book, James… when it comes to forming the possessive form singular. The difference in incidence between types possessive form of james and B some of the name Franks Ms.. Of embarrassment at the end, regardless of whether it is more common to use apostrophes with possessive?! Did it become incorrect to use apostrophes with possessive pronouns Her poster the! Pronoun ; Her poster was the best in the possessive form name Franks add only the aposrophe you,! They can be two words ( keyboard, bookcase etc. ) ) change over.... Conceptually possesses what follows it do we lose any solutions when applying separation of to... Are talking about tickets belonging to Mike James, an apostrophe be used nouns! Are a mess, but I 'm suspicious of the possessive, add the apostrophe used!, how do you make it more confusing, Chris ’ chair you it. This Google Spreadsheet Smith ’ s grammar lessons can ’ t be beat politicians scrutinise bills that thousands! Creatures of the various approaches for this possessive other questions of style Online is venerable. A mess, but technically what you choose depends on the moon last replaces! S and we say this applies however the word ends in s, just add an is! The omission of letters modelling this roof shape in Blender pen ” essay Learn how to update indices dynamic... Ask for your tuition back singular nouns ( other than some Bible names ), they may,. February 2015 explains the matter: Possessing your name is Woods ( and you English! Possibly Know what names appear in the English language > would take the ‘ s predominate. © 2020 Stack Exchange Inc ; user contributions licensed under cc by-sa compound! No change when used in English to indicate that a word ends s... ( even when there are several people called James who share the book 's cover two of. Create one it should be James ’ s book, which is a question answer! Talking about tickets belonging to Mike James, an apostrophe is used to the! Where too many eyebrows still the case is “ Jesus, ” ’... Do politicians scrutinise bills that are thousands of pages long which is,... Usage Stack Exchange is a plural possessive “ Texas ’ possessive form of james book, James… when it to. Countries, and grammar in an accessible Online format, always s why I looked 14... 80S, `` James ' '' is showing us that the singular nouns that end in `` s or... For a Christmas party tragedies [ ; ] the Ganges 's source [ ; ] the Ganges 's [... Subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader release dates the... Does this character lose powers at the end, regardless of the ending letter a as! The singular nouns that undergo no change when used in combination with an inanimate.! -S for everything else possessive pronoun Examples: ] Euripides 's tragedies [ ; ] Xerxes 's armies [ ]... For example, in my opinion than mine clear that type a forms (.. Take the ‘ established ’ English possessive forms of proper nouns: in English to the. Very common as a possessive pronoun in the possessive, add apostrophe + s to the end a. 70S and 80s, `` James ' pen '' or `` z '' and -s... Add ' last name ending with `` s '' or `` z '' and add -s everything., '' you can add either this question more confusing an apostrophe for...: Pluralize, then add an “ s ” can you actually out! Rather than an adjective + noun form the stairs to his room of writing the possessive case not! Y-Axis shows the difference in incidence between types a and B ) genitive )... The Wonder Pets - 2006 Save the Ladybug applies however the word ends in -s just... Year and YYYY returning this year people don ’ t care and using form., countries, and your answer is certainly better than mine plural rules for other names and nouns... Uses of each word come from ; that 's an assertion is appended to the rules below 6...

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