by Jennie Ruby
I had lunch with a grammarian last week who believes that apostrophes could simply be eliminated from the language. She said that if the apostrophe disappeared tomorrow, there would be no lack of clarity. He isnt home and there is Janes car would be easily understood by readers.
Hmmn. I like it. But it is not going to happen any time soon. We still have to deal with apostrophes and make some effort to get them right. So here are some of the guidelines:
To make a singular noun possessive, add an apostrophe and an s:
- the cat's toy
- Barb's ski boots
- Kevin's hat
If the noun already has an s on the end, you have a decision to make. Are you going to follow pronunciation? or are you going to simplify your life and use an arbitrary rule? Following pronunciation will make your writing read more smoothly. Following the arbitrary rule will make it easy to make your punctuation consistent. This is actually a style decision. The rules of grammar are not specific about apostrophes. That means you have to follow a style guide, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, or make your own style guide to keep your decisions consistent.
If you decide for pronunciation, you add either apostrophe and s, or just an apostrophe, depending on the word, to create at least one "es" sound, but not more than two. A z sound or x sound counts as an "es" sound.
- James's gloves (two s sounds)
- the Williamses' house (two s sounds)
- Camus' book (Without the apostrophe, the s is silent. With the apostrophe, you pronounce the s.)
- Lopez's jacket (two s sounds)
- Alex's snowboard (two s sounds)
If you decide to follow a simple, arbitrary rule, you create the possessive to any word ending in s (and it is up to you what to do about z or x) by just adding an apostrophe:
- James' gloves
- the Williamses' house
- Camus' book
- Lopez' jacket
- Alex' snowboard
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About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Editing with Word 2003 and Acrobat 7" and "Editing with MS Word 2007" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.