Which is grammatically correct: Lisa and Simon's cat OR Lisa's and Simon's cat?

Question

Lisa and Simon's cat

OR

Lisa's and Simon's cat?

Any links to sites which discuss this problem and why it should be one and not the other would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Lisa and Simon's cat

Answer 2

Lisa and Simon's cat

Not sure exactly why it is this way, but this was one of the topics in my college English/Grammar class.

Answer 3

I think it could be either, depending on who you ask. But I assume you are doing this for school and your teacher wants a definite answer, so go with:

Lisa's and Simon's cat.

Modern linguists might disagree, though. The following is a quick snippit from wikipedia.

[The term "possessive case" is often used to refer to the "'s" morpheme, which is suffixed onto many nouns in English to denote possession. This categorization is arguably not strictly correct — some grammarians contend that this affix is actually a clitic.]

Answer 4

this is a case of separate and joint possession.

For example you would add a sign of possessive to each individual if ownership was separate. sample sentence:

the buyer's and the seller's signatures.

or: The Joneses' and the Browns' house

Note; the repetition of THE with each name emphasizes that ownership is separate.

to indicate joint ownership add to final name alone....

ex; Karen and Brian's ski lodge.

with organizational names go with the company preference;
\
Ben and Jerry's Or Smith's and Jone's bookstores.

good luck!!

Answer 5

It is ONLY the first one. Possessive is always assumed to cross a conjuction in a list. Even a very short list with two items in it.