Sprinkling Apostrophes

Consider the position of the much-misused apostrophe. In recent years, people seem more and more inclined to use apostrophes like salt: They write a sentence or two—and then sprinkle some random apostrophes on their words. But apostrophes cannot be sprinkled randomly, and such sprinkling does not improve the flavor of their writing. Apostrophes have specific uses, in contractions and possessive nouns, and those uses must be respected.

The Meaning of the Apostrophe in It’s 

It’s is a contraction that means “it is.” That’s all it can mean. It can never, ever be a possessive.

Examples:

It’s getting late.

It’s really a shame.

It’s more than he can afford.

The Possessive Form of It


It does have a possessive form, but the possessive form of it does not take an apostrophe. Many people look at a possessive noun, e.g., “Graham’s [golf club],” or “Phoebe’s [tennis racket],” and conclude that, if an ’s indicates the possessive form of a noun, it must also indicate the possessive form of a pronoun, and that, therefore, the possessive form of it should be it’s. Those people are wrong. Its, as a possessive pronoun, should never take an apostrophe:

Its price was more than he wanted to spend.

The book was missing its jacket.

Apostrophes with Possessive Nouns

Most singular nouns form possessives by adding ’s:

a child’s toy

a tree’s leaves

a musician’s instrument

the dress, the dress’s sleeve 
James, James’s croquet mallet

Most editors allow three idiosyncratic exceptions to this rule: the name “Jesus,” the name “Moses,” and any Greek name of more than one syllable, all of which exceptions, to form the possessive, would add an apostrophe, but not an additional s.

Jesus’ disciples

Moses’ tablets

Socrates’ words

Nouns that form their plurals by adding s form their plural possessives by adding an apostrophe to the plural but not an additional s:

many trees’ leaves

two musicians’ instruments

They went to visit the Patels [plural, not possessive].
They went to the Patels’ house  [plural possessive].

Nouns that end in s in the singular, which form their plurals by adding es, form their plural possessives by adding an apostrophe to the plural, but not an additional s:

the dress [singular]
the two dresses [plural]
the two dresses’ sleeves [plural possessive]


Julia Jones [singular]

The Joneses [plural]

The Joneses’ house [plural possessive]

Fidelity Investments [singular (as name of company), not possessive]

Fidelity Investments’ spokesperson [singular (as name of company), possessive]

_______

Bulletin Board

To D.B., re ratings agencies and apostrophes:

Your query, re the possessive forms of “Standard & Poor’s” and “Moody’s,” seems particularly a propos, considering that last week’s post was about the language of bonds and today’s post is about possessives and apostrophes.

The question regards how one would form the possessive of Standard & Poor’s or Moody’s, names that are already possessive (having been originally, presumably, something like “Standard & Poor’s Rating Agency” and “Moody’s Rating Agency”). How would the form change to indicate it is being used as a possessive for something else (e.g., Standard & Poor’s [Rating Agency’s] rating)?

What a delicious problem! 

Theoretically, if a singular noun, the name of which is already in the possessive, were to possess something else, the possessive would then have to be “Standard & Poor’s’ ratings,” or “Moody’s’ ratings.” Ms. Picky suspects, however, that the companies just figured that “Standard & Poor’s’ ratings,” or “Moody’s’ ratings,” would simply be too, too ridiculous, and have therefore chosen to ignore the rules and say, instead, “Standard & Poor’s ratings” and “Moody’s ratings.” Ms. Picky agrees that forming a possessive from an existing possessive would be the height of silliness. Let’s give them a pass on this one.

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