Apostroph 's

Alles zur englischen Grammatik.
How to deal with English grammar.
SkiAss

Apostroph 's

Beitrag von SkiAss »

Hallo,

ein Problem was ich immer wieder im Englischen habe ist, dass ich nicht genau weiß wann ich ein Apostroph 's zu setzen habe.

Mein bisheriger Kenntnissstand:
It's = it is
Bei 'Its' = sein/ihr KEIN Apostroh

Genitiv: Singular
Tom's books...
Charles's books... Heisst doch Charles hat mehrere Bücher oder?

Genitiv Plural
The children's books... Mehrere Kinder, mehrere Bücher, aber children unregelmäßig gebildet?
The families' books...mehrere Familien, mehrere Bücher?

Gibt es noch mehr Möglichkeiten?

Beste Grüße

michael123

Beitrag von michael123 »

"Its" is a rare exception.

The correct form of "Charles's books" is actually Charles' book. It is customary in England to say it like "Charles's book" but the actual written form is Charles'

The children's books is correct because children is a plural word, the plural of child.

The number of books or objects does not affect the apostrophe, just the number of people.

So families' book/books is correct because it is/they are the book/books of the several families.

A common mistake of English speakers is to insert unnecassary apostrophes. The plural of apostrophe is not apostrophe's, but is apostrophes.

michael123

Beitrag von michael123 »

I am not so sure. That is how you say it yes, but I think you do write Charles' when showing posession.

michael123

Beitrag von michael123 »

OK I did a bit of digging. It turns out either use is grammatically correct:

5. When names end with the letter 's', either use is acceptable:

James' wife or James's wife.

Personally I use Charles'. I remember seeing this use in a Harry Potter book as well (I think it said Sirius'), and they are so heavily checked by J.K.'s and editors/publishers it would be impossible for it to be incorrect. So either use is acceptable, but I think an extra "s" looks untidy.