names ending with 'S'

[mollythetortoise]

quick query I am not clear on.
My ds name ends in an "s" -like James but not.

So do I write "thank you for James' presents" OR "thank you for James's presents".

any other rules with names ending with "s"??

advice gratefully received!

You are right it is James', I always knew this but ds's homework recently featured these pesky words so they haven't changed the rules. He must be called Jesus!

I thought that is was correct to put an "s" after the apostrophe unless the name had an "s" in the middle as well - so "James's presents" but "Jesus' presents".

I learned this a long time ago as I am terribly aged, so the rules may have changed :)

..."it" was correct. Sheesh.

I am considering a name ending in 's' for this baby and wondered the same thing, was even thinking about posting!
Am interested to see what definitive answer is!

There is no definitive. Either s' or s's is correct!

James was the example in the sats revision book.

One of my nephews is James and my mother never says ' James's shoes' - (or whatever). Instead she insists on ' James' shoes' - I'm imagining she mentally inserts an apostrophe - which I always hear as 'Jame's shoes'. She happily adds the extra 's' to other names eg Charles, Nicholas,Lewis.

It does irritate me.

Whilst either is correct when written,adding the extra 's is more common and less confusing.

Orson Welles's Citizen Kane.

I'm sure that there will be disagreement here but my understanding is that it's common practice to use 'James's' with the normal apostrophe 's' for modern names and to use the apostrophe without the 's' for biblical or historical names like Jesus' or Brutus'. I like this practice though I'm not entirely sure what the historical cut off point would be.

Agree with ghosteditor - people like Jesus, Moses, and St. James take an apostrophe without the 's'. 'Normal' names take it with the 's'.

yes, the rule is for classical or biblical names there is no s after the apostrophe.my son is james and i firmly write 'james's cup' or whatever.

i think either is technically correct.

Sorry I got mixed up.
The sats revision book has
Paris' airport
Jesus' message
James's game
so what's the rule?

There is no hard and fast rule. So long as you have an apostrophe, an extra s or not is optional.

That said, as a style guide, we were taught to add an s if the final s were sounded but not if it were silent, so:
James's
Descartes'

I personally don't think the above works very well, e.g. I don't like Aristophanes's, I would prefer the Classical/Biblical distinction.

Another question:
what would you do with surnames ending in s?
If talking about families whose surnames don't end in s, I would pluralise: the Smiths, the Browns, the Wallaces

Some names seem to lend themselves to -es: the Joneses, the Evanses - I'm not a massive fan of these but they kind of work.

But most don't: the Williamses, the Hugheses, the Rogerses all seem wrong. What can you do for them, apart from avoid plurals?

It is James's present - you put the S on unless there is an S alrad y in the name-
so it's
moses'
jesus'
James's
Charles's

if it's a family name, as Fink says -
belonging to the Browns - the Browns'
belonging to the Smiths - the Smiths'

sorry, Fink - mis-read yours - if it's a family plural, your examples are right
the Wallaces,
and belonging to the Wallaces is the Wallaces'
the Joneses - belonging to the Joneses - the Joneses'

and it should be Paris's airport, because in English you pronounce the S.
not Paris' airport. that's wrong.

That's a tad silly if the book ds is using, that was provided through his school, is wrong. I've told him it's Charles de Gaulle!

a lot of them do that, though - you'd be surprised how much stuff gets into print with errors in it.

the Paris' airport thing might be "house-style" - which is where, when rules are blurred, publishers impose their own rule - with this one, it's never been agreed whether it should have a 's or just ' so the publisher has chosen not to have 's.
I don't agree, but there you go!

either or. You choose