Editing Apostrophe (section)

===== Basic rule (compound nouns) =====

Compound nouns have their singular possessives formed with an apostrophe and an added ''s'', in accordance with the rules given above: ''the Attorney-General's husband''; ''the [[Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports]]'s prerogative''; ''this Minister for Justice's intervention''; ''her father-in-law's new wife''.
*In such examples, the plurals are formed with an ''s'' that does not occur at the end: e.g., ''attorneys-general''. A problem therefore arises with the ''possessive'' plurals of these compounds. Sources that rule on the matter appear to favour the following forms, in which there is both an ''s'' added to form the plural, and a separate '' 's'' added for the possessive: ''the attorneys-general's husbands''; ''successive Ministers for Justice's interventions''; ''their fathers-in-law's new wives''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Style Guide |url=http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/bjssg.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080313021406/http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/bjssg.pdf |archive-date=March 13, 2008 |publisher=US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gpoaccess.gov/stylemanual/2000/chapter_txt-8.html |url-status=dead |title=The United States Government Printing Office Style Manual 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060627092149/http://www.gpoaccess.gov/stylemanual/2000/chapter_txt-8.html |archive-date=27 June 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=[[The Chicago Manual of Style]] |chapter=§5.25 |quote=The possessive of a multiword compound noun is formed by adding the appropriate ending to the last word {parents-in-law's message}.}}</ref> Because these constructions stretch the resources of punctuation beyond comfort, in practice they are normally reworded: ''interventions by successive Ministers for Justice''.<ref>CMOS, 7.25: "If plural compounds pose problems, opt for ''of''. ... ''the professions of both my daughters-in-law''."</ref><ref>[http://www.llc.manchester.ac.uk/subjects/lel/staff/david-denison/papers/Fileuploadmax10Mb,120431,en.pdf ''Is the English Possessive ''{{'s}}'' Truly a Right-hand Phenomenon?'']{{dead link|date=May 2012}}</ref>