by Bobbie Christmas
Q: When it comes to possessives, I find the rules can be confusing. Can you sort them out? What is the correct possessive of proper nouns, names that end in s, like Jesus, or a plural last name or noun, like Smiths or dogs? I want to say that both still require an apostrophe and an s after the final s: Jesus’s prayer, the Smiths’s lake house, the dogs’s bones. What does Chicago style say?
A: To make a proper noun possessive, The Chicago Manual of Style adds an apostrophe and s. (Jim’s books) If the proper noun or its plural ends in s or an s sound, such as z, Chicago style still says to add an apostrophe and s. The Jones’s houses. Jesus’s sermon. When the singular ends in something other than an s, as in the case of Smith, the plural is Smiths and the plural possessive is Smiths’. The same holds true for common nouns, such as dog, the singular possessive of which would dog’s and the plural possessive would be dogs’.
English has one glaring exception to the rule of apostrophes for possessives. The word “its” does not take an apostrophe when it is possessive, as in this example: Its fur was brown. “It’s” with the apostrophe means “it is,” as in this example: It’s time to leave now.
Q: Please help me determine the correct sentence. I think the grammatically correct way sounds weird. Generation after generation COMES here and SHARES a meal together, or Generation after generation COME here and SHARE a meal together.
A: Collective nouns take singular verbs, so the correct sentence would go like this: Generation after generation comes here and shares a meal together. Whenever a grammatical sentence sounds weird, as that example does, it may be time to recast the sentence. Consider this recast: Several generations have come here and shared a meal together.
Q: Although I’m an English major, I still encounter glitches in my knowledge. That’s why your book, Purge Your Prose of Problems, is so invaluable. There is one grammar situation that continues to plague me, even though I’ve read about it and thought I had it down pat. It’s the comma that comes (or doesn’t come) after a name. I’ve studied the “essential” and “nonessential” comma rules but am stumped when I encounter names. Do commas belong in the following instances? My wife Cora is an excellent golfer. My twins Oscar and Oliver will start school in September. She praised my husband Albert.
I can never remember whether a comma is essential or isn’t. And what’s the meaning behind “essential?”
A: Even though I’ve been an editor for more than four decades, I too have quirks that I can’t quite grasp and have to look up again and again. Fortunately one of them is not the issue of commas with nonessential phrases. Perhaps the issue is confusing because the terms “essential” and “nonessential” refer not to the comma, but to the phrase that may or may not be set off by commas. In other words, if the information is essential for the understanding of a sentence, it is not set off by commas. If a word or phrase is nonessential and could be deleted without changing the meaning of the sentence, it should be set off by commas. Put to use in your examples, because in America men tend to have one wife at a time, the wife’s name is not essential to a sentence that refers to her as the narrator’s wife. The name is therefore set off by commas. My wife, Cora, is an excellent golfer. If the speaker is of a culture that allows more than one wife at a time, her name becomes an essential part of the sentence to show which wife is the good golfer. Of my four wives, my wife Cora is the best golfer.
Along the same lines, if the speaker has only one set of twins, their names are nonessential and would be set off by commas. My twins, Oscar and Oliver, will start school in September. If the speaker has two or more sets of twins, the names become essential. I have two sets of twins, and my twins Oscar and Oliver start school in September.
Because I know of no culture that allows a wife to have more than one husband, his name is nonessential in the following sentence: She praised my husband, Albert.
Some of the confusion may arise from the fact that the word “essential” sounds as if it should add something, such as a comma, whereas essential phrases do not add commas; nonessential phrases do. I can imagine the conflict created in our minds.
Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style: Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing, and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. Read more Ask the Book Doctor questions and answers at www.zebraeditor.com.