Kumquattel

I need a quick, clean rule of thumb for handling the apostrophe for plural possessives and singular nouns ending in "s" that are possessive.

Also, by the way - is "wildlife" plural or singular?

Necromortis

I'm pretty sure wildlife can be both plural and singular. I know for a fact that it can be used as plural...i.e. "Look at all the wildlife." I can't think of an example for a singular use of wildlife.

As for plural posessives, a quick Google search gave me this:

Source: 1.1c - Plural and Possessive Nouns

~Christian

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lin

Wildlife is singular.

Putting apostrophes on plural and s-ending nouns is a specialized grammatical quiddity technically know as a "total pain in the ass."

I'm FAR from a grammatical expert, but generally if the word ends in s you just put an apostrophe without adding another s.

So "I liked her cutoffs' habit of riding down and showing cleavage."

"Is that Robertson's hat or Jones'?"

There may be more details to this that the alledged dungbeetle nazis are are aware of, but that' the way I do it.

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Non Serviam

Sieg Heil!

Zis is vun of zose rules zat is no rule. Is a matter of house style.

Herr Strunk says zat you alvays form zer plural possessive viz an apostrophe and an s, even if zer word ends in an s. So according to Herr Strunk, "zer friend of Charles" is written "Charles's friend."

Read more about Herr Strunk's view here: Rules of Usage. Strunk, William, Jr. 1918. Elements of Style

Most of zer rest of us say "No, Herr Strunk, zis looks ugly. Vot ve vill do is to form our plural possessives by omitting zer final 's' ven zer letter before zer apostrophe is an 's'."

But is not wrong to do either vay. Ze only sing you must not do is put some plural possessives vun vay, and some zer ozzer. If you do zat, ve vill kick your door down viz our jackboots at dead of night and take you avay to zer concentration camp.

Now get writing! Schnell! Schnell!

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Born naked, helpless, unable to care for himself and completely open-minded, Non Serviam has subsequently surmounted all these difficulties and gone on to become a decently-clothed, self-sufficient, close-minded sod.

Necromortis

^I think in both your examples, because Jones and Charles are singular people, wouldn't you just add an 's anyway, despite the words ending in an s?

I form them like this:

Singular: The dog's hair ___. Christian's feet ____. Charles's hands _____.
Plural: The dogs' hair ____. The houses' walls _____.
Plurals that don't end in an s: The geese's flights ____. The moose's tails _____. The deer's hooves _____.

~Christian

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lin

Ve have VAYS of making you punctuate.

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The Backward OX

Zis all werry vell iss.

But how does vun determine if a verd plural or possessiff iss?

I am mindful of an earlier post by Herr Stumpenfuerher vere zee phrase in question iss “His company is under contract to publish two of my books and I have the proofs on my shelves, but I'm unsure whether they were sent to the printers."

Is “printers” a simple plural and needs no messing about with, or is it a possessive – and if so where does the apostrophe go?

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How Beautiful it is to Do Nothing, and then Rest Afterwards . . . . . Spanish proverb

lin

It's generally assumed to be a simple plural. You can tell the difference because there is no apostrophe.

It's possible that in some stiff-lip British usage you could see it as "the printer's" but I don't think that's common. And then it would start getting to to whether it's a one man print shop or whether it should be "the printers'"

Do you sit around the bush dreaming these things up, Olly Oxen, or is there some website you find them on?

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The Backward OX

Ach zo. Ze original ze apostrophe contained, und ziss poster removed it, yust for fun.

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How Beautiful it is to Do Nothing, and then Rest Afterwards . . . . . Spanish proverb