65
votes
Accepted
Why is the apostrophe positioned differently in "ones' complement" than "two's complement"?
Donald Knuth, that doyen of computer science, says in Art of Computer Programming, Vol 2.:
Detail-oriented readers and copy-editors should notice the position of
the apostrophe in terms like "two'...
- 966
15
votes
"Brazilian's army's ammo supply": is it right to use apostrophes on two consecutive nouns like this?
It would depend on what you meant. If you mean the Brazilian army was short of ammunition, then you would write the Brazilian Army's ammo supply is low.
But if you were referring to an army that is ...
- 36.6k
8
votes
Do I add " ’s " after the number on a pope/king’s name? (e.g. Pope Paul VI’s)
The English apostrophe-s is not a case inflection the way you have in German or Russian, Latin or Greek. Rather it is a clitic that attaches to the end of the entire noun phrase, not merely to the ...
- 133k
8
votes
Accepted
What's the rule for pronouncing “’s” as /z/ or /s/?
If the final sound in the base of the word is voiced, we use the voiced alveolar sibilant /z/.
If the last sound in the base is an unvoiced consonant, we use /s/.
However, if the last sound in the ...
7
votes
Accepted
Apostrophes in a list of people
If the boat is posssessed equally by the three, you only need put the apostrophe on the last person's name.
E.g., John, Jacob, and Mary's boat.
The possessive, in a list, on the last person shows ...
- 324
7
votes
A friend of John's / John's friend
Short answer
You could say either. However, it would perhaps be more natural to say a friend of John's, as the Original Poster suggests. The reason for this is that the speaker will probably want to ...
6
votes
Accepted
How do you punctuate what FFS expands to?
I have always written it as 'for fuck's sake' when I have needed to.
Definition of 'FFS'
in British English
slang
ABBREVIATION FOR the taboo expression 'for fuck's sake': used esp in social media, ...
- 12k
5
votes
Is the possessive of "one" spelled "ones" or "one's"?
Indefinite pronouns like one and somebody: one's, somebody's
The possessive of the pronoun one is spelled one's. There are many types of pronouns. Unfortunately, people explaining the mnemonic for ...
- 77.5k
5
votes
Is "mens" a valid word?
The "possessive" or genitive -'(s) construction in English has several uses.
In modern English, the most common and productive usage is to turn an entire NP (or DP, depending on what framework you're ...
- 77.5k
5
votes
Are there nouns that undergo no change when used in the possessive (Saxon genitive)?
I think you might be mistaking attributive nouns in noun–noun compounds for possessive nouns with apostrophes, but I’m not completely certain.
When you have a child entertainer, the word child is ...
- 133k
4
votes
Possessive form of coordinated noun phrases?
If Alex and Jen are marrying each other, then it is "Alex and Jen's wedding". If somehow they are marrying two other people, then it is "Alex's and Jen's wedding".
This distinction becomes more ...
- 27.9k
4
votes
Is it "John or Mary's house" or "John's or Mary's house"?
In my view, this question has three dimensions—one focused on logic, one concerned with style-guide preferences, and one emphasizing real-world usage.
The logic dimension
As a matter of logic, the ...
- 158k
4
votes
Accepted
Adding a possessive to a singular noun phrase that ends in a plural noun
I'm going to quote a comment that I think efficiently lays out some of the presuppositions that this question is based on, in order to express some disagreement with those presuppositions:
in ...
- 77.5k
4
votes
Accepted
On the idiomaticity of attributive proper nouns, proper adjectives, and either singular or plural possessives when describing Imperial Possessions
You should say "Ottoman war machine" and "Byzantine city of Constantinople".
Ottoman, although derived from a name, is one of the words that people like to say is "used as an adjective". The phrase "...
- 77.5k
4
votes
Found in Mary'r Room
Assuming we're talking about the his-possessive and its ilk (also called the "possessive dative"), the forms with "her" and "their" were used "very rarely", so ...
- 63k
3
votes
You're both of us' child / You're both of our child / You're both of ours child - Why are these all ungrammatical?
As you note, you can have co-ordinated plurals:
You're [Mary and John]'s child
You're [the McDonalds'] child
You're [the couple who robbed them]'s child
All use a phrase and the Saxon genitive. The ...
- 98.5k
3
votes
"Brazilian's army's ammo supply": is it right to use apostrophes on two consecutive nouns like this?
To be honest there are cases when it's perfectly acceptable to have "dual 's"
For Example: "Bob's army's Supply was lower then normal after the storm."
That said, it's probably best to avoid it. ...
- 1,959
3
votes
Accepted
What is the correct way to show tiered possession?
Those are all just fine.
Imagine your boss’s husband’s sister’s hairdresser’s salon, for example. Those all just chain together.
We don’t have to write the salon of the hairdresser of the ...
- 133k
3
votes
Accepted
What is the correct possessive form of "Drs. Smith"?
I'm going to make an educated guess, which isn't necessarily the best option but:
Technically, if you rewrite the phrase, you get:
The house belongs to the Drs. Smith.
Smith is singular, so the ...
- 3,537
3
votes
Accepted
Do I need an apostrophe in "These trees’ roots"?
If the main focus of the question is where to place the possessive apostrophe then the answers posted by Caleb and Daniel are absolutely correct, the apostrophe is placed after the suffix "s"...
- 88.4k
3
votes
Accepted
What's wrong with "One of my children's name IS John"?
Actually, this construction seems to be be attested in some documents indexed by Google Books:
The Witness: One of my children's name is Richard White.
(The federal reporter - Volume 219 - Page ...
- 77.5k
3
votes
How do you make a phrase possessive?
The sentence is perfectly grammatical as it is. Here a friend of mine's is called a phrasal genitive. We say that mine's has double case-marking, an inner case and an outer case. See especially the ...
- 12.2k
2
votes
How to use a the possessive "s" after a dot?
The New Yorker has a convention of writing Jr.,’s in such cases, as in Donald Trump, Jr.,’s love (source). It seems odd, but they present their rationale here.
- 121
2
votes
Saxon Genitive or adjective
I think the classification of the part of speech of words like "FDA" is actually not necessarily as simple as tchrist indicates, but in any case, "FDA, EPA, and TTB regulations" is entirely correct ...
- 77.5k
2
votes
Point, points, or points' distribution in space?
How about "distribution of points" for clarity?
- 3,494
2
votes
Accepted
If every brother has one book, are they brothers' books or brothers' book?
Let's assume I have two brothers, Cain and Abel. Cain has book A, Abel has book B. Should I call that books "my brothers' books" or "my brothers' book" to distinguish between having one book or more ...
- 329
2
votes
What is the correct possessive form of "Drs. Smith"?
The treatment of plural possessive Drs. Smith and that of attorneys general ought to be about the same. (Although the hyphenated British version is probably not applicable)
The site Above The Law has ...
- 33.2k
2
votes
Possessive past participle adjective?
In your example,
[...] when the man you've scripted's hands are lifted to the sky...
"the man you've scripted's hands" is the NP subject of the predicate "are lifted to the sky". That NP has a ...
- 17.1k
2
votes
Accepted
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