When writing and there's a word that ends in the letter 's', you prefer to just add an apostrophe at the end (Davis') as opposed to adding an apostrophe and an 's' (Davis's) amirite?

+200 When writing and there's a word that ends in the letter 's', you prefer to just add an apostrophe at the end (Davis') as opposed to adding an apostrophe and an 's' (Davis's) amirite?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I think unless Davis is a plural, using Davis' in a possessive way would be grammatically incorrect. I could be wrong because I haven't thought about the rules for this kind of thing in a long time.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

According to the dictionary, you use an "s's" when the word, if pronouced, would sound like it has the plural. You use "s' " when the pronounced version of the word in the possessive form sounds just like the normal or plural form, whichever version you are adding a possessive to. For example: Ares goes to Ares'; and James goes to James's.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I was taught that Davis' was the only correct way.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'm a grammar freak, but I still get confused with this rule too. Also a/an historical. I just recently learned why some people put an.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I prefer proper grammar. My last name ends in two s (ss? -how do you make s plural?) and it pisses me off when people don't add the extra s.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It's s'

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I thought for possessive words ending in s you add the apostrophe at the end (eg. Davis' car) even if it's singular. For words not ending in s, you would add the 's for possessive singular (eg. the boy's football, there being one boy) but s' for plural (if there were lots of boys, it would be the boys' football). Personally I took this post to mean possessive things though (not plural as a lot of people are commenting) as surely for plural you would just add 'es'?

by Anonymous 11 years ago