Is it Lucas' or Lucas's

[DaCosta]

Yup, what the title said.

Is it Lucas' or Lucas's (as in - it belonged to Lucas)

I was always taught it was the first, but have been corrected by a professional who knows a great deal more than me.

What do you guys say?

 

[alchemist]

These days, I believe both are considered valid.

The best thing to do though, is to call him Luke.

 

[Nerds_feather]

In American standard English, at least, it is now perfectly acceptable to write Lucas'. Not sure about the UK, though.

 

[Ursa major]

For names ending in an s, I would add 's, as the name is not a plural. And while I don't think this is a hard and fast rule (particularly amongst some colonials ), there is the name, Luca, to consider, such that one could write

Lucas' cars were Mercedes
​

and mean that the cars owned by these particular people called Luca were Mercedes. (THis wouldn't really be confusing, as the context (and perhaps the use of the word, the, in from of Lucas') would probably let the reader know what was going on.)

 

[The Ace]

I prefer the first - it looks more elegant.

While both are considered correct these days, I always feel that anyone who uses the latter isn't worth listening to.

I take your point, Ursa, but the former has been used for decades by people who actually understand their native language - the latter form just seems to be yet another attack on our language by the semi-literate.

Despite my hard-line stance on violence against women, I think Helen Fielding deserves a hard punch in the mouth for, 'Bridget Jones's Diary.'

 

[Boneman]

I prefer the first - it looks more elegant.

While both are considered correct these days, I always feel that anyone who uses the latter isn't worth listening to.

But are they worth reading?

I have a character called Marcus. Agent I worked with said Marcus's was better than Marcus' especially when read aloud...

 

[Abernovo]

As per alc's statement.

It's a personal choice which seems, oddly, to produce strong emotions. I won't mention a disgusting vegetable based spread.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Both are correct but once you pick one be consistent. (I've had a Socrates, an Angus, an Iris and a Gus as MCs) My personal preference is to go with the "Angus' boots."

 

[Jo Zebedee]

These days, I believe both are considered valid.

The best thing to do though, is to call him Luke.

And I do that with Empress, how?

It's to do with Strunk's Elements of Style, I believe, and the Brits tend to go Lucas's and the US Lucas'. I, to be contrary, use Empress' and drive Mouse mad when she betas.

 

[HareBrain]

I prefer the extra s because that's closest to how it sounds. Phonetically, what you want to say is "Lucases". To me, that's Lucas's -- Lucas' looks as though it should be pronounced "Lucas".

Incidentally, the extra s is more traditional in British English (eg St James's Palace), except (I think) for Greek names, maybe Latin ones too. So it would be Xerxes', but Thomas's.

 

[Mouse]

What HB said.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

That's why I kept to the s' - Socrates's to me looks wrong on so many levels. I decided to be consistent with his brother Angus.

 

[Erin99]

I ALWAYS used to add the extra s, because I was a stickler and believed it was the only grammatical way. Now, I see it looks less clunky without the s.

Especially if you had a sentence with loads of Ss anyway: "Some empresses stared at some other empresses's silk gowns and sniggered"...

 

[DaCosta]

Wow, all that from just a little s

Thanks team. As clear as mud as is usually the case with the English language.

Whenever I see it with an additional s I always feel it's wrong - and have a little smug chuckle to myself - now I can't even do that.

 

[Ursa major]

... except (I think) for Greek names, maybe Latin ones too. So it would be Xerxes', but Thomas's.

Both are correct but once you pick one be consistent. (I've had a Socrates, an Angus, an Iris and a Gus as MCs) My personal preference is to go with the "Angus' boots."

...so if you consistently used Angus's, Iris's and Gus's, you could still use Socrates' and not be thought to be going against your original choice to use 's.

 

[HareBrain]

Especially if you had a sentence with loads of Ss anyway: "Some empresses stared at some other empresses's silk gowns and sniggered"...

Er ... it would be empresses', not empresses's.

One of my main characters is called Cass. So I have Cass's this and Cass's that. 60% of the letters in that word are "s". That's an even higher proportion than in "possesses"! And I don't care, because it's RIGHT.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Er ... it would be empresses', not empresses's.

One of my main characters is called Cass. So I have Cass's this and Cass's that. 60% of the letters in that word are "s". That's an even higher proportion than in "possesses"! And I don't care, because it's RIGHT.

Cup of camomile tea and a slice of chocolate cake? Puts on soothing music with a platypus' song in it.

(You're wrong, y'know. )

 

[Mouse]

I can confirm that HB is correct.

 

[Erin99]

I'm sticking with Springs on this.

Er ... it would be empresses', not empresses's.

Silk gowns belonging to multiple empresses... What am I missing? Old me would have happily put in the extra s. (Now, however, I see it looks horrendous.)

 

[Brian G Turner]

I remember this came up a while back. This affects one of my main characters directly. Previously I had used the single apostrophe, but after consideration, I decided it was better to use the apostrophe + s.

I personally go with Lucas's as the potentially safer choice, offering less chance of confusion.