Posted by Mark on Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at 8:18am.
Ok I got confused
How to solve the following example?
My brother__ wife__ name is Pauline. Where do we put possessive s???
Yes. There is also debate about what to do if you are talking about a name. For example, if your name is Tony Jones and you have a family, people argue over whether you would say:
--This is Tony Jones's family.
Or
--This is Tony Jones' family.
Nobody can seem to settle the argument. MOST older grammar books say the first way. MANY newer ones say the 2nd way, 1st way, or both are accepted. Bottom line, ask your teacher what they think and stick with that until you leave them. I personally leave it be if they are consistent.
Your brother has a wife. His wife has a name. You have 2 posessives here.
brother's wife's
Matt is right. There are times when people don't agree about whether to use just an apostrophe or apostrophe+s with a word that already ends in -s.
Here's how I teach noun forms:
For regular nouns:
Singular = student, student's
Plural = students, students'
For somewhat irregular nouns:
S = boy, boy's
Pl = boys, boys'
S = radio, radio's
Pl = radios, radios'
S = boss, boss's
Pl = bosses, bosses'
For VERY irregular nouns:
S = child, child's
Pl = children, children's
S = man, man's
Pl = men, men's
S = woman, woman's
Pl = women, women's
Names:
S = James, James's/James' <~~*
Pl = Jameses, Jameses' (very rare!)
*This is when you must be consistent. If you are going to use 's for all singular nouns/names that end in -s, then make sure all such nouns have 's for the singular plural. But if you are going to use only the apostrophe, then make sure you do this for all such nouns.
Correction!!
... have 's for the singular possessive.
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