But if you listen to everyone else, oy vey: "Many respected sources have required that practically all singular nouns, including those ending with a sibilant sound, have possessive forms with an extra s after the apostrophe, says Wikipedia, citing The Economist and the MLA. But there are exceptions. Our anonymous British friends who don't put a period after Mr. say this: "Although singular in other respects, the United States, the United Nations, the Philippines, etc, have a plural possessive apostrophe: eg, Who will be the United States' next president?" Also? "Try to avoid using Lloyd's (the insurance market) as a possessive; it poses an insoluble problem."
Insoluble? A few sources suggest that Biblical and classical names are an exception -- Jesus', Socrates', Ramses'. Then there's one person who says "when a word of 3 syllables or longer ends in s, you just put the apostrophe for the possessive, unless that makes the sentence sound ambiguous" -- Laertes', but Claudius's.
But we here at ALOTT5MA don't believe in insoluble situations. We believe in answers. So when we ponder why all of Anthony Hopkins's recent films have sucked, should we just say Hopkins'? Is Richard Dreyfuss' career on the rebound, or Richard Dreyfuss's? And how can we praise sufficiently Pythagoras' contributions to our understanding of right triangles? The floor is yours.
added, January 28: Final poll results:
- Add an apostrophe ("Dickens' novels") -- 71 (47%)
- Add apostrophe + s ("Dickens's novels") -- 29 (19%)
- Usually add apostrophe + s, but with exceptions -- 48 (32%)
