Is it Lucas' or Lucas's

[DaCosta]

Will pistols at dawn solve this?

 

[DaCosta]

Sold, double s's it is. (Reluctantly I might add )

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Will pistols at dawn solve this?

No, the chocolate cake should suffice. We are all agreed on the calming qualities of same. It even has those posh curly chocolate bits on it. Classy.

But not for you, da Costa. You gone and sided with them.

(A secret - it really doesn't bother me either way. So long as the character it concerns is worth reading about.)

 

[HareBrain]

I see no option but to segregate the entire Chrons site based on which side people fall on this fundamental issue.

(The chocolate cake stays on the "extra s" side.)

 

[Mouse]

Sold, double s's it is. (Reluctantly I might add )

YAY! Thousands of eyeballs everywhere thank you for not causing the unnecessary pain of having to look at an awful lonely apostrophe hanging at the end, not knowing what to do with itself.

 

[Erin99]

(A secret - it really doesn't bother me either way. So long as the character it concerns is worth reading about.)

Very true. Once I'm into an author's style, it doesn't matter which they've chosen.



But the cake stays with us.

 

[HareBrain]

Silk gowns belonging to multiple empresses... What am I missing?

Empresses is the plural of empress. With a plural, the possessive apostrophe goes after the plural "s".

So, empresses' ballgowns, same as birds' calls, butchers' vans, rabbits' warren.

(I'm sure you know this perfectly well, it's just all the s's momentarily confused you!)

 

[DaCosta]

I have another whammy.

is it:

'he walked toward the river'

or

'he walked towards the river'

 

[Ursa major]

The cake is ours!


(Oh, look! An s on the end of a possessive that doesn't require an apostrophe. )

I have another whammy.

is it:

'he walked toward the river'

or

'he walked towards the river'

"Towards" is more common in British English, "toward" more common in American English.

 

[Erin99]

Heh, tbh, right now I can't remember much, HB. I've got a stinker of a cold that I've had for nearly two weeks and an ear infection for over a week. Right now I'm hot, headachey, tired, achey, coughy, and dizzy. LOL! Still alive, though.




DC, I would alternate between them, depending on how the sentence reads. Dunno if that's right.


Edit: Whaddya know! I checked my website, and apparently I did know that advice about apostrophes and plurals! My head must be worse than I thought! Must rest, then.

 

[Abernovo]

Towards, with the 's'. Without is just wrong.

Re the important question, I'm a philistine: I don't like chocolate cake!
Other cake, yes.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

...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.

Iris is also Greek. (rainbow goddess) So it would be Iris' and Socrates' vs Angus's and Gus's.

Nah I prefer consistency.

 

[Ursa major]

Iris may have been absorbed from Greek, but it has become** an ordinary English word (and name). So if you used, Gus's, you'd probably have to use Iris's.





** - As someone once said:

We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Iris may have been absorbed from Greek, but it has become an ordinary English word (and name). So if you used, Gus's, you'd probably have to use Iris's.

His full name is Augustus so we go Roman Much easier not to bother with the 's

 

[Colbey Frost]

I've settled with Lucas'. It looks cleaner and my brain knows what it means.

 

[DaCosta]

I'm a libra, okay, I have a real problem when it comes to making decisions. With an s, without an s. Argh! My heart says without but my head says with. Dammit.

 

[Mouse]

Lucas's. There, final decision. Now away with you!

 

[Ursa major]

As an aside, wouldn't this be a matter of the publisher's house style? (This is not to say we shouldn't choose one or the other and stick to it; having a consistent manuscript is good.)

 

[DaCosta]

Lucas's.

The End.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I have another whammy.

is it:

'he walked toward the river'

or

'he walked towards the river'

Depends on what country the river is in. If it's an American river, he walks toward it. If it's a British river, he walks towards it. Unless he's an American walking toward a British river, or....

Perhaps he should just walk away from the river. There's no chocolate cake there, anyway. It was there, but it's been stolen by the apostrophe-s people. That's right, it's the thieves's cake now.