Using apostrophe + s and "the" - is it incorrect and why?

Question

I saw a colleague writing:

Can you add the new option in the Salesforce’s panel?

English is my second language, but my intuition tells me that using the with 's in this situation is incorrect and you should use either:

Can you add the new option in Salesforce’s panel?

...or:

Can you add the new option in the Salesforce panel?

Am I right and if yes, why am I right? What are the grammatical rules that apply here?

You are correct. I'll do a little research and see if I can figure out why — Kevin, Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 13:57

Kevin · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-29 14:05:08Z

-1

You are correct. The reason is that you don't use "the" with proper nouns, but you do with common nouns.

INCORRECT

Can you add the new option in the Salesforce’s panel?
Can you add the new option in customer’s panel?

CORRECT

Can you add the new option in Salesforce’s panel?
Can you add the new option in the customer’s panel?

answered Mar 29, 2021 at 14:05

Kevin

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NB This is true of names of organisations, but it doesn't apply to titles of individuals - e.g. All the President's men, and Kipling's The Colonel's Lady and Judy O'Grady.
– Kate Bunting
Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 14:28
One has to consider whether 'the' is addressing the noun phrase or just the attributive or head noun. And some proper nouns usually have the definite article. 'The BBC News' / 'the ITV News' but 'the BBC's offices' / 'ITV's offices'.
– Edwin Ashworth
Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 15:35
@KateBunting, president and lady are common nouns, and the exception may arise when common nouns are used as titles. We don't say "the sir's estate" because sir is a title and not a common noun.
– Peter
Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 22:16
@Peter I know that, of course - but the President and the Colonel act as proper nouns when they identify the individual currently fulfilling that role.
– Kate Bunting
Commented Mar 30, 2021 at 7:30
@KateBunting, my point is that the exception you identified only seems to apply to titles which are capitalised common nouns. Do you have an excaption to this observation?
– Peter
Commented Mar 30, 2021 at 11:20

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