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I only accept the first style, because I pronounce it "Jameses pen", not "James pen". If there are multiple choices and one more closely resembles the spoken l
by LegibleCrimson 3y ago
I only accept the first style, because I pronounce it "Jameses pen", not "James pen". If there are multiple choices and one more closely resembles the spoken language, I don't see any reason to save a written letter. Otherwise you have "James' pen" being pronounced "Jameses pen", but "the voters' choice" for some reason is not pronounced "the voterses choice". You end up with one specific circumstance where an apostrophe is actually pronounced, and I really don't like that.
I'm also American.
- ericbarrett 3y agoI don't add the extra s, nor do I speak it aloud. Also American (western).
- LegibleCrimson 3y agoSo you'd pronounce "I have James' pen" as "I have James pen"?
- readthenotes1 3y agoI do. It's rare to be confusing. And if it were, I would not do Jameses, I would go traditional and say James his pen (since 's is a contraction of his)
- kstrauser 3y agoIt's not a contraction. It's a possessive, and specifically not a contraction of "James his".
- readthenotes1 3y agoAs I had read that it was, I went searching for more authority and it looks like it was and it wasn't as best I can try to figure out from this article https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_genitive https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_genitive