{"id":1552,"date":"2014-05-27T17:43:49","date_gmt":"2014-05-27T23:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=1552"},"modified":"2020-11-25T10:32:55","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T16:32:55","slug":"apostrophes-dueling-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/apostrophes\/apostrophes-dueling-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Apostrophes: Dueling Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are various guidelines for apostrophes, but only three rules that everyone agrees on: To show possession for a noun that is singular and does not end in s<\/em>, add \u2019s <\/em>(Joe\u2019s<\/strong> lunch<\/em>). If the noun is plural but does not end in s<\/em>, add \u2019s <\/em>(the people\u2019s<\/strong> choice<\/em>). If the noun is plural and ends in s<\/em>, add just an apostrophe (the leaves\u2019<\/strong> bright colors<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Beyond these, the experts are at odds. For instance, how should we write the possessive of singular proper nouns ending in s<\/em>? The two foremost American authorities on written English, The Chicago Manual of Style<\/em> (CMOS<\/em>) and The Associated Press Stylebook <\/em>(AP<\/em>), have irreconcilable policies. AP <\/em>prefers adding only an apostrophe (Charles\u2019 book<\/em>), whereas CMOS <\/em>recommends adding \u2019s<\/em> (Charles\u2019s book<\/em>). Take your pick.<\/p>\n

Here are some other apostrophe debates \u2026<\/p>\n

\u2022 CMOS<\/em> adds just an apostrophe when a noun ending in s <\/em>is the same whether singular or plural. The guidebook offers three examples: politics\u2019<\/strong> true meaning<\/em>, economics\u2019<\/strong> forerunners<\/em>, and this species\u2019<\/strong> first record<\/em>. The GrammarBook.com staff agrees with politics\u2019<\/em> and economics\u2019<\/em>, but prefers this species\u2019s<\/em>, because in normal English usage, species<\/em> is just as likely to be singular as it is to be plural\u2014one often hears \u201ca species,\u201d but who says \u201ca politics\u201d or \u201can economics\u201d?<\/p>\n

\u2022 With nouns ending in s<\/em>, writes English scholar Roy H. Copperud, there are editors whose choice of either \u2019s <\/em>or a lone apostrophe is based on such esoteric criteria as how many syllables are in the word; whether the accent falls on the last syllable; and whether the last syllable begins, ends, or both begins and ends with an s <\/em>sound. If you\u2019re shaking your head, you\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Many who generally add \u2019s <\/em>to common and proper nouns ending in s <\/em>make one huge exception: they drop the added s <\/em>if pronouncing it would be awkward or uncomfortable. For example, since most people would not pronounce an s<\/em> added to the possessive form of Mr. Hastings<\/em>, these writers and editors prefer Mr. Hastings\u2019 pen<\/em>, not Hastings\u2019s. <\/em>And since most people would likely pronounce an added s <\/em>if the pen belonged to Mrs. Jones, it should be Mrs. Jones\u2019s pen<\/em>, rather than Jones\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

It should be noted that CMOS<\/em> does not concur, and prescribes \u2019s <\/em>with no exceptions (other than the aforementioned politics<\/em>, economics<\/em>, etc.). We agree, because we do not assume that all careful speakers pronounce words the same. To what extent should the editing of written English be based on ease of pronunciation? That is a discussion worth having. But such a method does not account for vast differences in articulation within the diverse company of literate speakers of English worldwide.<\/p>\n

Besides, anytime you don\u2019t like the look or sound of a sentence, the easy way out is a rewrite. As CMOS <\/em>points out, writing the first record of this species<\/em> sidesteps the whole species\u2019 <\/em>vs. species\u2019s<\/em> predicament.<\/p>\n

And when it comes to apostrophe rules, we see little to be gained from so many exotic exceptions and qualifications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are various guidelines for apostrophes, but only three rules that everyone agrees on: To show possession for a noun that is singular and does not end in s, add \u2019s (Joe\u2019s lunch). If the noun is plural but does not end in s, add \u2019s (the people\u2019s choice). If the noun is plural and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apostrophes","category-possessives"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}