4 ms·

Thomas' is not grammatically correct in any version of English that I know. It's not plural. There is no special rule for that. Both the street signs you mentio

Thomas' is not grammatically correct in any version of English that I know. It's not plural. There is no special rule for that. Both the street signs you mentioned are at least grammatically coherent

oarsinsync 2y ago
When a word ends with an s, the use of an apostrophe without another s is valid English. Thomas’ and Thomas’s are the same thing.
- iraqmtpizza 2y ago
  lol no. arguably the word ain't is more proper English than Chris' or boss'
  - AlecSchueler 2y ago
    Lol yes though?
  - TheRealPomax 2y ago
    It is trivial to find more than sufficiently authoritative source that cover the rules that make "Chris'" and "boss'" perfectly value contracted possessives in English. [1] However, it's English: there isn't just one rule, another rule can also be valid and might be the one you're familiar with on a day to day basis. That doesn't mean any other way to say or write the same thing is wrong, it's just a pattern you never saw. Like someone going "lol snuck isn't a real word, it's sneaked!" and then you hand them a dictionary and they learn something new about their own language. [1] https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/media_wysiwyg/University%2520of%2520Oxford%2520Style%2520Guide.pdf https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/media_wysiwyg/Univer...
    - AlecSchueler 2y ago
      Page not found while accessing your link.
    - iraqmtpizza 2y ago
      [dead]
  - swores 2y ago
    Being confident doesn't change the fact that you're misinformed about English grammar.
    - iraqmtpizza 2y ago
      [dead]
  - vundercind 2y ago
    You pronounce both of your examples with two S phonemes at the end. Putting that in the written form is absolutely Ok.
    - thaumasiotes 2y ago
      > You pronounce both of your examples with two S phonemes at the end. Um... what? Pronouncing a possessive suffix with /səs/ isn't valid anywhere. The only possibility is /səz/. Same goes for the plural suffix.
- Caligatio 2y ago
  I actually had to look this up, it depends if the possessive form is actually said with one or two Ss. For instance, it's Jones's and Bridges'. https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/easy-learning/what-are-the-rules-for-forming-the-possessive-apostrophe-s-in-english https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/easy-learning/what-are... https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/apostrophe/possessives https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/apostrophe/...
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
lioeters 2y ago
Confidently wrong. > Some writers and editors add ’s to every proper noun, be it Hastings’s or Jones’s. There also are a few who add only an apostrophe to all nouns ending in s. > ..One method, common in newspapers and magazines, is to add an apostrophe plus s (’s) to common nouns ending in s, but only a stand-alone apostrophe to proper nouns ending in s. > Examples: the class’s hours; Mr. Jones’ golf clubs; The canvas’s size; Texas’ weather
- iraqmtpizza 2y ago
  "Some writers" say that the French Foreign Legion has been deployed to the front lines in Ukraine too. We must take this very seriously, then! Some writers write things like Four Fat Harvard Girls Lose Book Bag too. They use sentence fragments. They try to save ink by doing weird shit. Professional Buzzfeed writers write AF (yes, in caps) to mean as fuck. The Atlantic used the words electroöptical and rôles in 1940. Just because some minimum-wage burnout or penny-pinching editor breaks a rule doesn't mean that the rule doesn't exist. If you go around the office saying that someone drank out of the boss' mug, they'll think you're fresh off the boat. Not only is it wrong in written English, it's not even accepted colloquially in spoken English, anywhere. And so it makes perfect sense that the written form would reflect the pronunciation. Saying Texas' weather out loud just confuses people into thinking you're using it as an adjective when what you're really doing is trying to sound smart when you're actually sounding dumb. If you point at a book and say, that's Chris', you sound like you have brain damage. How is the book Chris'? Chris is a person, not a book! The only reason that people don't correct you is that they're being polite. And people misspell words all the time and the world doesn't cave in. That doesn't imply any particular thing about English grammar. Another commenter found that you can say Jeff Bridges' because this is an irregular case to avoid saying the same sound twice—an exception which proves the rule (and also, I don't think it's irrelevant at all to point out the fact that Bridges is literally a plural noun made into a name). But Thomas is decidedly not in this narrow category. His source even uses Thomas' as an example of what not to do, lol. Normally I wouldn't dumpster someone this hard but hn rate limits so I may as well lengthen my response. Nothing personal.
  - Turing_Machine 2y ago
secondcoming 2y ago
You’re wrong. It’s definitely correct, but even native English speakers get the Rules of Apostrophe wrong all the time.
add-sub-mul-div 2y ago
It's an older rule that's falling out of style, but it is real. Until 2017 Thomas' was correct by the Associated Press stylebook.
Stratoscope 2y ago
I do like Thomas'® English Muffins though.

Thomas' is not grammatically correct in any version of English that I know. It's not plural. There is no special rule for that. Both the street signs you mentioned are at least grammatically coherent

oarsinsync 2y ago

When a word ends with an s, the use of an apostrophe without another s is valid English. Thomas’ and Thomas’s are the same thing.

iraqmtpizza 2y ago
lol no. arguably the word ain't is more proper English than Chris' or boss'
- AlecSchueler 2y ago
  Lol yes though?
- TheRealPomax 2y ago
  It is trivial to find more than sufficiently authoritative source that cover the rules that make "Chris'" and "boss'" perfectly value contracted possessives in English. [1] However, it's English: there isn't just one rule, another rule can also be valid and might be the one you're familiar with on a day to day basis. That doesn't mean any other way to say or write the same thing is wrong, it's just a pattern you never saw. Like someone going "lol snuck isn't a real word, it's sneaked!" and then you hand them a dictionary and they learn something new about their own language. [1] https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/media_wysiwyg/University%2520of%2520Oxford%2520Style%2520Guide.pdf https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/media_wysiwyg/Univer...
  - AlecSchueler 2y ago
    Page not found while accessing your link.
  - iraqmtpizza 2y ago
    [dead]
- swores 2y ago
  Being confident doesn't change the fact that you're misinformed about English grammar.
  - iraqmtpizza 2y ago
    [dead]
- vundercind 2y ago
  You pronounce both of your examples with two S phonemes at the end. Putting that in the written form is absolutely Ok.
  - thaumasiotes 2y ago
    > You pronounce both of your examples with two S phonemes at the end. Um... what? Pronouncing a possessive suffix with /səs/ isn't valid anywhere. The only possibility is /səz/. Same goes for the plural suffix.
Caligatio 2y ago
I actually had to look this up, it depends if the possessive form is actually said with one or two Ss. For instance, it's Jones's and Bridges'. https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/easy-learning/what-are-the-rules-for-forming-the-possessive-apostrophe-s-in-english https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/easy-learning/what-are... https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/apostrophe/possessives https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/apostrophe/...
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

lioeters 2y ago

Confidently wrong. > Some writers and editors add ’s to every proper noun, be it Hastings’s or Jones’s. There also are a few who add only an apostrophe to all nouns ending in s. > ..One method, common in newspapers and magazines, is to add an apostrophe plus s (’s) to common nouns ending in s, but only a stand-alone apostrophe to proper nouns ending in s. > Examples: the class’s hours; Mr. Jones’ golf clubs; The canvas’s size; Texas’ weather

iraqmtpizza 2y ago
"Some writers" say that the French Foreign Legion has been deployed to the front lines in Ukraine too. We must take this very seriously, then! Some writers write things like Four Fat Harvard Girls Lose Book Bag too. They use sentence fragments. They try to save ink by doing weird shit. Professional Buzzfeed writers write AF (yes, in caps) to mean as fuck. The Atlantic used the words electroöptical and rôles in 1940. Just because some minimum-wage burnout or penny-pinching editor breaks a rule doesn't mean that the rule doesn't exist. If you go around the office saying that someone drank out of the boss' mug, they'll think you're fresh off the boat. Not only is it wrong in written English, it's not even accepted colloquially in spoken English, anywhere. And so it makes perfect sense that the written form would reflect the pronunciation. Saying Texas' weather out loud just confuses people into thinking you're using it as an adjective when what you're really doing is trying to sound smart when you're actually sounding dumb. If you point at a book and say, that's Chris', you sound like you have brain damage. How is the book Chris'? Chris is a person, not a book! The only reason that people don't correct you is that they're being polite. And people misspell words all the time and the world doesn't cave in. That doesn't imply any particular thing about English grammar. Another commenter found that you can say Jeff Bridges' because this is an irregular case to avoid saying the same sound twice—an exception which proves the rule (and also, I don't think it's irrelevant at all to point out the fact that Bridges is literally a plural noun made into a name). But Thomas is decidedly not in this narrow category. His source even uses Thomas' as an example of what not to do, lol. Normally I wouldn't dumpster someone this hard but hn rate limits so I may as well lengthen my response. Nothing personal.
- Turing_Machine 2y ago

secondcoming 2y ago

You’re wrong. It’s definitely correct, but even native English speakers get the Rules of Apostrophe wrong all the time.

add-sub-mul-div 2y ago

It's an older rule that's falling out of style, but it is real. Until 2017 Thomas' was correct by the Associated Press stylebook.

Stratoscope 2y ago

I do like Thomas'® English Muffins though.