4 ms·

Sometimes, but most cases are quite simple. I learned the difference between they're/there/their sometime before grade 8, and I generally expect people I conver

Sometimes, but most cases are quite simple. I learned the difference between they're/there/their sometime before grade 8, and I generally expect people I converse with to recognize that distinction. As for possessive forms - that's even easier. In most cases, if something belongs to someone, use an apostrophe. If it doesn't, then don't. Okay, it can get confusing, but in most cases, it's not.

gergles 15y ago
LeafStorm was talking about saying them properly. How do you say: "That [thing] is Jess's"? (conversely, is it Jess' or Jess's or should we be forced to say 'belongs to Jess')? Now, imagine you're not a native speaker and you have to figure out how to say that. That's the difficulty.
- Shenglong 15y ago
  The thing is, I'm not a native speaker; it's not really something I struggled with when I learned English. I believe the general rules I learned were: plural & no possession: no apostrophe singular, possession & name doesn't end with s: 's singular, possession & name ends with s: ' plural, possession & name doesn't end with s: s'
  - cpeterso 15y ago
    I'm a native English speaker and my name ends in 's', yet even I waffle about whether I just use an apostrophe. I generally include an apostrophe just for consistency. My heuristic is: if I would pronounce the extra sound, then include the apostrophe. Unfortunately, this would not help non-native speakers.. <:)
    - sp332 15y ago
      We can say that Shenglong's rules are "English", and then whatever you do in real life is your "dialect".
      - ZeroGravitas 15y ago
        And yet if you try to trace back why those "rules" have any authority and you're likely to end-up back at a claim that it was what everyone did in their real life.
        sp332 15y ago
        The rules have the authority we give them. Either we give up on having an English language that we can agree on, or we have arbitrary rules.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- c0riander 15y ago
  Conventionally, you would just say "Jesses" and the possessive would be clear from context. As for the apostrophe, the veritable Strunk & White (arbiters of writing style) say: Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's. Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write, Charles's friend Burns's poems the witch's malice Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names ending in -es and -is, the possessive Jesus', and such forms as for conscience' sake, for righteousness' sake. But such forms as Moses' Laws, Isis' temple are commonly replaced by the laws of Moses the temple of Isis.

gergles 15y ago

LeafStorm was talking about saying them properly. How do you say: "That [thing] is Jess's"? (conversely, is it Jess' or Jess's or should we be forced to say 'belongs to Jess')? Now, imagine you're not a native speaker and you have to figure out how to say that. That's the difficulty.

Shenglong 15y ago
The thing is, I'm not a native speaker; it's not really something I struggled with when I learned English. I believe the general rules I learned were: plural & no possession: no apostrophe singular, possession & name doesn't end with s: 's singular, possession & name ends with s: ' plural, possession & name doesn't end with s: s'
- cpeterso 15y ago
  I'm a native English speaker and my name ends in 's', yet even I waffle about whether I just use an apostrophe. I generally include an apostrophe just for consistency. My heuristic is: if I would pronounce the extra sound, then include the apostrophe. Unfortunately, this would not help non-native speakers.. <:)
  - sp332 15y ago
    We can say that Shenglong's rules are "English", and then whatever you do in real life is your "dialect".
    - ZeroGravitas 15y ago
      And yet if you try to trace back why those "rules" have any authority and you're likely to end-up back at a claim that it was what everyone did in their real life.
      - sp332 15y ago
        The rules have the authority we give them. Either we give up on having an English language that we can agree on, or we have arbitrary rules.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
c0riander 15y ago
Conventionally, you would just say "Jesses" and the possessive would be clear from context. As for the apostrophe, the veritable Strunk & White (arbiters of writing style) say: Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's. Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write, Charles's friend Burns's poems the witch's malice Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names ending in -es and -is, the possessive Jesus', and such forms as for conscience' sake, for righteousness' sake. But such forms as Moses' Laws, Isis' temple are commonly replaced by the laws of Moses the temple of Isis.