| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
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| -’s, -s’ |
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| The possessive or genitive case in nouns adds apostrophe (’) plus s in the singular, s plus apostrophe in the plural. The pronunciations are not always as distinctive as the spellings: boys, boy’s bike, boys’ bikes; dresses, this dress’s skirt, these dresses’ skirts. Proper nouns already ending in -s vary in spelling and sound of genitives: Mr. Jones’s car (pronounced JONZ or JONZ-iz), the Joneses’ cars (pronounced usually JONZ-iz), and either Yeats’s poem or (rarely) Yeats’ poem (pronounced either YAITS-iz or YAITS). See also APOSTROPHE (2); PERSONAL PRONOUNS. | 1 |
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| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
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