Editing Apostrophe (section)

====General principles for the possessive apostrophe====
===== Summary of rules for most situations =====
* Possessive personal pronouns, serving as either noun-equivalents or adjective-equivalents, do not use an apostrophe, even when they end in "s". The complete list of those ending in the letter "s" or the corresponding sound {{IPA|/s/}} or {{IPA|/z/}} but not taking an apostrophe is "ours", "yours", "his", "hers", "its", "theirs", and "whose".
* Other pronouns, singular nouns not ending in "s", and plural nouns not ending in "s" all take {{" '}}s" in the possessive: e.g., "someone's", "a cat's toys", "women's".
* Plural nouns already ending in "s" take only an apostrophe after the pre-existing "s" to form the possessive: e.g., "three cats' toys".

===== Basic rule (singular nouns) =====

For most singular nouns the ending {{" '}}s" is added; e.g., "the cat's whiskers".
*If a singular noun ends with an "s"-sound (spelled with "-s", "-se", for example), practice varies as to whether to add {{" '}}s" or the apostrophe alone. In many cases, both spoken and written forms differ between writers (see details [[#Singular nouns ending with an "s" or "z" sound|below]]).
* Acronyms and initialisms used as nouns (CD, DVD, NATO, RADAR, etc.) follow the same rules as singular nouns: e.g., "the TV's picture quality".

===== {{anchor|Plural possessive}}Basic rule (plural nouns) =====

When the noun is a normal plural, with an added "s", no extra "s" is added in the possessive, and it is pronounced accordingly; so "the neighbours' garden" (there is more than one neighbour owning the garden) is standard rather than "the neighbours's garden".
* If the plural is not one that is formed by adding "s", an "s" is added for the possessive, after the apostrophe: "children's hats", "women's hairdresser", "some people's eyes" (but compare "some peoples' recent emergence into nationhood", where "peoples" is meant as the plural of the singular "people"). These principles are universally accepted.
* A few English nouns have plurals that are not spelled with a final "s" but nevertheless end in an /s/ or a /z/ sound: "mice" (plural of "mouse"; also in compounds like "[[dormouse]]", "[[titmouse]]"), "[[dice]]" (when used as the plural of "die"), "pence" (a plural of "penny", with compounds like "sixpence" that now tend to be taken as singulars). In the absence of specific exceptional treatment in style guides, the possessives of these plurals are formed by adding an apostrophe and an "s" in the standard way: "seven [[titmice|titmice's]] tails were found", "the dice's last fall was a seven", "his few pence's value was not enough to buy bread". These would often be rephrased, where possible: "the last fall of the dice was a seven".{{NoteTag|"Pease" as an old plural of "pea" is indeterminate: Lentils' and pease'[s] use in such dishes was optional. Nouns borrowed from French ending in ''-eau'', ''-eu'', ''-au'', or ''-ou'' sometimes have alternative plurals that retain the French ''-x'': ''beaux'' or ''beaus''; ''bureaux'' or ''bureaus''; ''adieux'' or ''adieus''; ''fabliaux'' or ''fabliaus''; ''choux'' or ''chous''. The ''x'' in these plurals is often pronounced. If it is, then (in the absence of specific rulings from style guides) the plural possessives are formed with an apostrophe alone: ''the beaux' [or beaus'] appearance at the ball''; ''the bureaux' [or bureaus'] responses differed''. If the ''x'' is not pronounced, then in the absence of special rulings the plurals are formed with an apostrophe followed by an ''s'': ''the beaux's appearance''; ''the bureaux's responses''; ''their adieux's effect was that everyone wept''. See also [[#Nouns ending with silent s, x, or z|Nouns ending with silent "s", "x" or "z"]], below, and attached notes.}}

===== 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>

===== Joint or separate possession =====

For two nouns (or noun phrases) joined by ''and'', there are several ways of expressing possession, including:
:1. marking of the last noun (e.g. "Jack and Jill's children")
:2. marking of both nouns (e.g. "Jack's and Jill's children").<ref name="Cambridge Grammar: Coordination and genitives">{{cite book |last1=Huddleston |first1=Rodney |author1-link=Rodney Huddleston |last2=Pullum |first2=Geoffrey |author2-link=Geoffrey Pullum |title=The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0521431468 |pages=1330–1332}}</ref>
Some grammars make no distinction in meaning between the two forms.{{NoteTag|For instance:
*''[[The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language]]'', explicitly states
::"Types I [Jack and Jill's] and II [Jack's and Jill's] are not semantically contrastive. Both allow either a joint or distributive interpretation of the genitive relation."<ref name="Cambridge Grammar: Coordination and genitives"/>
*''[[A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language]]'' explicitly states
::"A coordination of genitives such as ''John's and Mary's children'' may be interpreted in either a combinatory or a segregatory fashion:
:::combinatory meaning:
:::::'the children who are joint offspring of John and Mary'
::: segregatory meaning:
:::::'John's child and Mary's child'
::: or 'John's children and Mary's child'
::: or 'John's child and Mary's children'
::: or 'John's children and Mary's children' "<ref name="Comprehensive Grammar: Coordination of genitives">{{cite book |last1=Quirk |first1=Randolph |author-link1=Randolph Quirk |last2=Greenbaum |first2=Sidney |author-link2=Sidney Greenbaum |last3=Leech |first3=Geoffrey |author-link3=Geoffrey Leech |last4=Svartvik |first4=Jan |date=1985 |title=A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language |url=https://archive.org/details/comprehensivegra00quir |url-access=registration |location=Harlow |publisher=Longman |isbn=9780582517349 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/comprehensivegra00quir/page/963 963–965]}}</ref>}} Some publishers' style guides, however, make a distinction, assigning the "segregatory" (or "distributive") meaning to the form "John's and Mary's" and the "combinatorial" (or "joint") meaning to the form "John and Mary's".{{NoteTag|For instance:
*''[[The Chicago Manual of Style]]'' (16th ed.) states:
:"Closely linked nouns are considered a single unit in forming the possessive when the thing being 'possessed' is the same for both; only the second element takes the possessive form.
::my aunt and uncle's house [...]
:When the things possessed are discrete, both nouns take the possessive form.
::my aunt's and uncle's medical profiles [...]"<ref name="CMS: Joint versus separate possession">{{cite book |title=The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=1993 |isbn=9780226103891 |edition=14th |page=356}}</ref>
*''[[New Hart's Rules]]'' states:
:"Use ''{{'}}s'' after the last of a set of linked nouns where the nouns are acting together [...] but repeat ''{{'}}s'' after each noun in a set where the nouns are acting separately"<ref name="New Hart's Rules: Possession ">{{cite book |chapter=New Hart's Rules |title=New Oxford Style Manual |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199657223 |page=64}}</ref>
*''[[Garner's Modern American Usage]]'' states
:"For joint possession, an apostrophe goes with the last element in a series of names. If you put an apostrophe with each element in the series, you signal individual possession."<ref name="Garner's: Joint possessives">{{cite book |last=Garner |first=Bryan A. |author-link=Bryan A. Garner |title=Garner's Modern American Usage |url=https://archive.org/details/garnersmodername00garn |url-access=registration |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195161915 |page=[https://archive.org/details/garnersmodername00garn/page/625 625]}}</ref>}} A third alternative is a construction of the form "Jack's children and Jill's", which is always distributive, i.e. it designates the combined set of Jack's children and Jill's children.<ref name="Cambridge Grammar: Coordination and genitives" />

When a coordinate possessive construction has two personal pronouns, the normal possessive inflection is used, and there is no apostrophe (e.g., "his and her children"). The issue of the use of the apostrophe arises when the coordinate construction includes a noun (phrase) and a pronoun. In this case, the inflection of only the last item may sometimes be, at least marginally, acceptable ("you and your spouse's bank account").<ref name="Cambridge Grammar: Coordination and genitives"/><ref name="Comprehensive Grammar: Coordination of genitives"/> The inflection of both is normally preferred (e.g. Jack's and your dogs), but there is a tendency to avoid this construction, too, in favour of a construction that does not use a coordinate possessive (e.g. by using "Jack's letters and yours").<ref name="Cambridge Grammar: Coordination and genitives"/> Where a construction like "Jack's and your dogs" is used, the interpretation is usually "segregatory" (i.e. not joint possession).<ref name="Comprehensive Grammar: Coordination of genitives" />

===== With other punctuation; compounds with pronouns =====

If the word or compound includes, or ends with, a punctuation mark, an apostrophe and an ''s'' are still added in the usual way: "[[Westward Ho!]]'s railway station"; "''Awaye!''{{'}}s Paulette Whitten recorded Bob Wilson's story";<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/rn/awaye/index/subjects_Music_2007.htm |title=''Awaye!'' |website=abc.net.au }}{{dead link|date=May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=[[The Chicago Manual of Style]] |chapter=§7.18}}</ref> ''Washington, D.C.'s museums''.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Gregg Reference Manual |edition=10th |date=2005 |chapter=paragraph 641}}</ref> (assuming that the prevailing style requires full stops in ''D.C.'').
*If the word or compound already includes a possessive apostrophe, a double possessive results: ''Tom's sisters' careers''; ''the head of marketing's husband's preference''; ''the [[Fox hunting|master of foxhounds']] best dog's death''. Many style guides, while allowing that these constructions are possible, advise rephrasing: ''the head of marketing's husband prefers that&nbsp;...''. If an original apostrophe or apostrophe with ''s'' occurs at the end, it is left by itself to serve both purposes: ''Our employees are better paid than McDonald's employees''; ''Standard & Poor's indices are widely used'': the fixed forms of ''[[McDonald's]]'' and ''[[Standard & Poor's]]'' already include possessive apostrophes. For similar cases involving geographical names, see [[#Possessives in geographic names|below]].
* Similarly, the possessives of all phrases whose wording is fixed are formed in the same way:
**"[[Us and Them (song)|Us and Them]]{{" '}}s inclusion on the album ''[[The Dark Side of the Moon]]''
**[[You Am I]]'s latest CD
**[[The 69'ers]]' drummer, Tom Callaghan (only the second apostrophe is possessive)
** ''[[His 'n' Hers]]''<nowiki />'s first track is called "Joyriders".{{NoteTag|This is standard even though the possessive word ''hers'' is usually spelled without an apostrophe; see below in this section.}}
** Was ''[[She (novel)|She]]''{{'s}} success greater, or ''[[King Solomon's Mines]]''{{'s}}?{{NoteTag|Most sources are against continuing the [[italics]] used in such titles to the apostrophe and the ''s''.}}
:For complications with foreign phrases and titles, see [[#Nouns ending with silent s, x, or z|below]].

===== Time, money, and similar =====

An apostrophe is used in time and money references in constructions such as ''one hour's respite'', ''two weeks' holiday'', ''a dollar's worth'', ''five pounds' worth'', ''one mile's drive from here''. This is like an ordinary possessive use. For example, ''one hour's respite'' means ''a respite of one hour'' (exactly as ''the cat's whiskers'' means ''the whiskers of the cat'').

===== Possessive pronouns and adjectives =====

No apostrophe is used in the following possessive pronouns and adjectives: ''hers'', ''his'', ''its'', ''my'', ''mine'', ''ours'', ''theirs'', ''whose'', and ''yours''. All other possessive pronouns do end with an apostrophe and an ''s''. In singular forms, the apostrophe comes first, e.g. ''one's''; ''everyone's''; ''somebody's'', ''nobody else's'', etc., while the apostrophe follows the ''s'' in plural forms as with nouns: ''the others' complaints''.

The possessive of ''it'' was originally ''it's'', in contrast to the modern ''its''. The apostrophe was dropped by the early 19th century. Authorities are now unanimous that ''[[it's]]'' can be only a contraction of ''it is'' or ''it has''.<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=its its] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606143303/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=its |date=6 June 2011}}. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved on 7 April 2013.</ref>{{NoteTag|See for example ''[[New Hart's Rules]]''. Not one of the other sources listed on this page supports the use of ''it's'' as a possessive form of ''it''.}} Despite this, using ''it's'' as a possessive pronoun is a common [[grammatical error]] in present times.

===== Importance for disambiguation =====

Each of these four phrases (listed in [[Steven Pinker]]'s ''[[The Language Instinct]]'') has a distinct meaning:
*My sister's friend's investment ''(the investment belonging to a friend of my sister)''
*My sister's friends' investment ''(the investment belonging to several friends of my sister)''
*My sisters' friend's investment ''(the investment belonging to a friend of several of my sisters)''
*My sisters' friends' investment ''(the investment belonging to several friends of several of my sisters)''

[[Kingsley Amis]], on being challenged to produce a sentence whose meaning depended on a possessive apostrophe, came up with:
*Those things over there are my husband's. (''Those things over there belong to my husband.'')
*Those things over there are my husbands'. (''Those things over there belong to several husbands of mine.'')
*Those things over there are my husbands. (''I'm married to those men over there.'')<ref>Fynes, Jane. (26 April 2007) [http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21619016-27197,00.html Courier Mail, Little things that matter] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120904080438/http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21619016-27197,00.html |date=4 September 2012}}. News.com.au. Retrieved on 7 April 2013.</ref>