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In the following (poorly written?) sentence:

You improve your co-worker's luck and your business's.

I want to say that the luck of your business will also be improved... How do I say this? By putting an apostrophe after "business"? I'm trying not to repeat "luck".

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3
  • The possessive form of business is business’s. You cannot just put a lone apostrophe there, because that is not how it is pronounced.
    – tchrist ♦
    May 4, 2013 at 19:32
  • @tchrist: Edited my question. The thing is: if I had used "business's" would the sentence be correct?
    – John Assymptoth
    May 4, 2013 at 20:20
  • Sure, it would have been fine.
    – tchrist ♦
    May 4, 2013 at 20:27

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In speech, I think I would say and your business's, pronounced -nisiz. In writing, I would change it to and that of your business.

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3
  • Why business's and not business' ? Is it because business is an irregular word?
    – John Assymptoth
    May 4, 2013 at 21:31
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    @JohnAssymptoth No, it is completely regular. It’s because business’s is pronounced with an extra syllable compared with business alone. I don’t understand why this spelling mistake is so common. You only use a single apostrophe when there is no change in pronunciation when forming the possessive, like with this species’ strategy or those farmers’ fields. That’s why it is the class’s president, or perhaps just the class president, but never the *class’ president, which makes no sense.
    – tchrist ♦
    May 5, 2013 at 3:50
  • @tchrist: I agree that this is the best rule and that it is often recommended by style books; but I think some people use or have used to use other rules as well.
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    May 5, 2013 at 15:33

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