Possessive apostrophes in a linked pair of people

[ScummyMummy]

If Gabriel and Fabian are sharing a cake and I want to refer to it, is it:

1. Gabriel and Fabian's cake

or

1. Gabriel's and Fabian's cake

or

1. something else entirely that I haven't thought of?

Need quick answers as am writing essay (not about Gabriel or Fabian or cakes but nonetheless your answers will help!)

Thanks in advance.

I don't know which is correct but if I were saying it out loud I would think number 1) sounds more natural. Will watch with interest. I love pedants' corner.

As they jointly own the cake number 1 is correct. When two or more people jointly possess an item, put the apostrophe after the noun closest to the item: Eric and Phil's car (they jointly own car), Eric and Phil's cars (they jointly own more than one car). But when two or more people separately possess items, put an apostrophe or an 's after each noun: Eric's and Phil's cars.

Oh thank you, sniffyhock. That's very helpful.

So if Gabriel and Fabian had both given evidence separately, which happened to say the same thing, it would be

'Gabriel's and Fabian's evidence indicates blah blah blah'

because they each separately own their evidence? Is that right?

I think so but I'm sure lots of other people are more knowledgeable than me

well, in your second example, I would probably say 'The evidence given by Gabriel and Fabian indicates blah blah blah'.

Just to confuse you, like.

anyway, no... because you would say 'Gabriel and Fabian's mums', surely. Not 'Gabriel's and Fabian's mums' - the only difference here being that 'evidence' is not used in the plural in English (but is understood here as being plural, since people give evidence separately)

Thanks everyone.

If I was doing creative writing I would definitely nick your sentence, waswondering! As it is I'm going to nick harpo's "the evidence given by x and y..." and avoid the problem altogether.