From: Chris C. <ca...@al...> - 2002-12-18 16:15:29
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Guillaume Laurent wrote: > Oh, thanks. I thought you'd use a simple " ' " as long as the name > ended with an "s". Goes way back to my first english classes. Nah, your teacher was propagating a common mistake. The only time you use "'" on its own at the end is when you're making a possessive of a plural group that ends in s. Plurals that don't end in s, and singular nouns that do, get the usual "'s". For example, "the teachers' papers" are papers belonging to a particular group of teachers, and "teachers' papers" are a general class of papers that are owned by teachers, but papers that belong to one teacher are teacher's, papers belonging to Chris or James are Chris's or James's, and papers that belong to sheep are sheep's. Chris |