@christianselig The Associated Press Stylebook says the correct way to write the possessive case of Chris is Chris', not Chris's. Other style guides, including the Chicago Manual of Style, say Chris's is correct. If there isn't a specific guidebook you need to follow, you can use either Chris' or Chris's.
Looks like if you’re in the USA you can do whatever the hell you wish in this case 🤷🏻
(I voted Chris’ as that was how I was taught oh so many years ago)
@christianselig I actually dreamt the other night that I got really upset with my wife over her plural/possessive apostrophe usage. Thankfully, when I woke up I couldn’t remember what she had done and what I insisted she should have done.
@christianselig I once saw a tweet from @_Jordan to the effect that you should spell it like you say it, and that made total sense to me. I say Mavis's, so I'll write Mavis's.
@christianselig the public is wrong. Mavis’ means the item belongs to multiple “Mavi” (which in my mind sounds like the alien from the Avatar movie). Only Mavis’s show that “Mavis” own the item.
@christianselig@IDIC Not to burst your bubble, but its’ not 78% of “people”, but rather 78% of the nerdiest of tech nerd’s (here on Mastodon). Our opinion’s are NOT representative of the masses on topics’ like this.
@christianselig@natelee following your audience is really the best thing. Even though other uses of apostrophes in this toot thread have been wrong, I’m restraining myself. (Non-sequitur rhetorical: should I write “toot thread” now that there is Meta Threads?)
This hopefully will be my last toot about apostrophes. (I split the infinitive since yesterday was Star Trek Day)
@christianselig wait til you see how “up in arms” I get when people put apostrophes in other places they don’t belong 😜 like ATMs is the plural of ATM, but people like to write ATM’s :sadness:
@christianselig@IDIC That’s a terrible take. So if 78% of people agree that global warming is not happening, then you’re happy to just go along with them and give them what they expect rather than stand up for what is right. Gotcha.
@platkus@IDIC Comparing science where there's objective realities to language where everything is just made up by humans and constantly changing is an… interesting choice
@jfew That's my issue though, style guides claim one thing when the reality is everyone expects it potentially a different way, I'd rather go with "the norm" than "the correct", ya know?
@christianselig Mavis’s is the correct form but most people at least in AmE were (incorrectly) taught Mavis’. Probably because the exception to the rule is prefer Jesus’ over Jesus’s.
@christianselig It could very well not be true, but my English teacher (Denmark, late 2000’s) made it very clear that only one of those was a valid option. The other would get you a bad grade.
@christianselig In writing, I will always end with an apostrophe and no trailing ‘s’. However, when speaking, I will always include an extra ‘s’ to make it clear that I’m saying the possessive.
@christianselig It depends. But in UK-Eng, style guides tend to recommend you write as pronounced for singular possessives. So: Mavis’s. However, if the S isn’t pronounced or the subject is a plural noun, the S would be omitted.
Ultimately, you need to align with your publication’s style guide, however, lest a production editor angrily disembowel you.
@_Jordan@christianselig I understood the question to be about how it’s written, not pronounced.
I checked out how different publications describe how to form this:
Oxford - only add ‘ without ‘s when it’s a plural noun
COCA - ‘ without ‘s is three times more common in proper names ending in s
EU - Only use ‘ when a word ends in s
So it seems there’s no definite answer, it all depends where you’re from. Since I was trained on the EU standard, I don’t add the s in writing
@christianselig Append apostrophe-S if the word is singular, even when the word already ends in S. Use just an apostrophe if the word is plural.
One of my colleagues recently wrote a paper in which he used "Venus' atmosphere" in the title, and I die a little inside every time I see that paper cited.
@christianselig@BernieDoesIt the correct usage is ‘s after any singular noun even in nouns ending in s. You pronounce both when you are speaking, say, about something like Chris’s car…the car belonging to Chris. So I put one on the end. I was an English teacher.
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