Have you seen _____ new house?
1. Mary's and Mia's
2. Mary and Mia's
3. Mary's and Mia'
Answer: 2
Is this _________ car?
1. Mr. Joneses'
2. Mr. Jones's
3. Mr. Jone's
answer: 2
Yes, for both of them.
Correct.
To determine the correct usage in the first question, "Have you seen _____ new house?", we need to understand the rules for indicating joint possession.
When two or more people share ownership of something, you typically add an apostrophe and an "s" ('s) after the last name only. So, in this case, when Mary and Mia jointly own the house, the correct answer would be "Mary and Mia's" (Option 2) because you add the possessive apostrophe and "s" after Mia's name.
In the second question, "Is this _________ car?", we are determining the correct possessive form for the surname "Jones". When a singular surname ends with an "s", you can use either the apostrophe alone (') or add an apostrophe and another "s" (’s) to indicate possession.
The correct answer would be "Mr. Jones's" (Option 2) because it is a singular surname ending with an "s", and it follows the rule of adding an apostrophe and "s" to show possession. However, some style guides might also accept "Mr. Jones'" (Option 1) without an additional "s" because pronouncing the extra "s" can be redundant in some contexts.