Timeline for Apostrophes and s’s
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
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| Jun 15, 2020 at 7:40 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
Commonmark migration
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| Mar 31, 2013 at 15:21 | comment | added | St John of the Cross | @EdwinAshworth No, I haven't; but this question refers to using apostrophes, not leaving them out altogether! | |
| Mar 31, 2013 at 15:08 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | @St John of the Cross: Either way? Perhaps you haven't been to St James Park (Exeter). | |
| Mar 28, 2013 at 20:24 | vote | accept | Celeritas | ||
| Mar 21, 2013 at 23:13 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | You have to leave the St Jamie’s Park bit out, because that is a fossilized relic. And I really have heard people say Moses’s Laws so that it doesn’t sound like Moza’s Laws (whoever that is). I prefer saying the Laws of Moses myself, and sidestepping the issue altogether on that one. | |
| Mar 21, 2013 at 23:08 | comment | added | St John of the Cross | Ye-es... one doesn't write or say Moses's. But St. James' Park can be written either way. And, indeed, pronounced according to the spelling (although James's is more usual, whatever the spelling). | |
| Mar 21, 2013 at 23:03 | comment | added | tchrist♦ |
Actually, I contend that if it ends in -s, then whether to add an ’s to form the possessive is not a matter of style, but rather of pronunciation and underlying phonological rules that even native speakers are unaware of unless shown. It has to do with how no matter whether it is for pluralization or for forming possessives (A.K.A Saxon genitives), we only ever add one /əz/ inflection to a word, never two, and how this is blocked by words already ending in unstressed /iːz/.
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| Mar 21, 2013 at 22:55 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | Ah yes, the nose knows: My nose is mine, thy nose is thine, your nose is yours, his nose is his, her nose is hers, their noses are theirs, and its nose is its. Just don’t tell Mitch. | |
| Mar 21, 2013 at 22:50 | history | answered | St John of the Cross | CC BY-SA 3.0 |