Re: The most irritating practice in written English

On Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:55:04 +0000, Ian Jackson wrote:

In message
<7dc24b33-f7e5-41e5-b583-d8468162b6e7@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Mike M <mikmooney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
On 17 Dec, 02:03, "DavidW" <n...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
R H Draney wrote:
Robert Bannister filted:

On Dec 15, 7:50 pm, "DavidW" <n...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Possessives of singular nouns ending in 's' written as s'.
"I went to Ross' house for tea."
"My boss' desk is a mess."
"Qantas' share price crashed yesterday."

Exactly. I spell them the way I am pronouncing them in my head at the
time of writing. Since I often, in speech, say "Charles'/James'
[whatever] and certainly always say "Davy Jones' locker", I spell
them that way. I do not say "Ross'" or "boss'", so I don't use that
spelling.

"Qantas'" is a bit different, since you do sometimes hear things like
"Rio Tinto share price" without a possessive 's at all.

I wonder if Qantas is different because it's an acronym....r

Not IMO. It's an ordinary word, or at least a proper noun like any other, for
the purpose of possessives.- Hide quoted text -


Here's a good one that crops up occasionally in pub quizzes

"Where do Newcastle United F.C. and Exeter City F.C. (respectively)
play their home games? :

Answer: Newcastle - St James' Park; Exeter - St James Park.

Mike M

A Google reveals that Newcastle do indeed play at somewhere called 'St
James' Park'. However, I've always known it as being called 'St James's
Park', and I've never heard it pronounced as anything else ('St Jamezes
Park').

Streetmap agrees with me that is 'St James's Park', although the
adjacent road is 'St James St' - something which will certainly confuse
the Americans!

Strangely, the Google Maps map doesn't even acknowledge the existence of
the St James's Park football ground, even though it's as large as life
on the satellite view. However, the nearby Metro station is called 'St
James Station'.

Don't forget that map makers purposely make one or two mistakes
to foil would be imitators.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The most irritating practice in written English
    ... Mike M writes ... I spell them the way I am pronouncing them in my head at the ... However, I've always known it as being called 'St James's Park', and I've never heard it pronounced as anything else. ... Streetmap agrees with me that is 'St James's Park', although the adjacent road is 'St James St' - something which will certainly confuse the Americans! ...
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  • Re: The most irritating practice in written English
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