Plain English. Marian Wharton
Thus:
James's (pronounced James-ez.)
Mr. Lynch's (pronounced Lynch-ez.)
The only exception to the rule occurs when the addition of another s would make too many hissing sounds, then we add the apostrophe alone. Thus:
For goodness' sake.
In Jesus' name.
91. In forming the possessive of compound nouns, the possessive sign is always placed at the end, thus:
My son-in-law's sister.
The man-of-war's cannon.
92. When we wish to show that a thing belongs to two or more persons who are joint owners of it, we add the possessive sign to the last word only, thus:
Carson, Price and Scott's store.
Mason and Hamlin's pianos.
If it is a separate ownership that we wish to denote, we place the possessive sign after each name, thus:
Bring me John's and Mary's books.
Lee's and Grant's armies met in battle.
Remember that the noun has just three changes in form, one for the plural number, one to denote gender and one for the possessive form. Watch carefully your own language and that of your friends and note if these changes are correctly made.
Exercise 3
Write the plural form of each of the following:
ax
beef
chief
hero
knife
T
hoof
man-of-war
axis
basis
cherry
leaf
son-in-law
Mr. Smith
thief
Doctor Wood
alley
buffalo
chimney
staff
Frenchman
Miss Brown
ox
spoonful
alto
calf
cargo
two
3
tooth
foot
turkey
Exercise 4
Underscore the nouns in the following:
How many abstract nouns?
How many concrete?
How many singular?
How many plural?
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