Grammarians, which is right: Charles's book or Charles' book? Why?

Question

Because I'm about to marry someone named Charles, this choice will come up frequently. My college professors would want to see "Charles's book," but it seems the modern style in publications is "Charles' book."

Answer 1

Yes, the correct answer is 'Charles's' for the reasons already given. Apostrophe-s added to the end of a noun is the standard way of indicating possession, with the sole exception of nouns which have been pluralised by adding an 's' or 'es' already. You should still use apostophe-s with singular nouns which end in 's' and plural nouns which do not end in 's'. So, it would be 'Tess's book' or 'the children's book', but 'the adults' book'.

Rules on grammar and punctuation change over time and, at some stage, we could see the newer approach take precedence; for now, though, I think the more traditional approach can safely be considered 'right' both because it is more commonly followed and because it makes better sense. Often these kinds of problems arise because of discrepancies between how things appear and how things are said; but even that doesn't provide an excuse in this case. I should think that nearly everyone would say 'CharlesES book' rather than 'Charles book'.

There are conventions, of course, where this basic rule is sometimes abadoned. 'Jesus' and 'goodness', for example, seem special enough to possess things with just an apostophe. I think there might be a difference here between American usage and British usage, though. I've just glanced at the website referred to by Serin and I would never write - and have never seen written - "for appearance' sake", or "for conscience' sake".

Answer 2

Charles's book because charles is in the singular and book is in the singlular. charles' would be incorrect because that implies that there is a group of men named charles. They would have to have many books. Charles' books.

Answer 3

Appostrophe 's is not necessary to indicate the posessive clause, if the word ends with 's'. In this case, since there is 's' already in Charles, it is enough to put the punctuation mark after Charles. So, Charles' book is correct.

Answer 4

"Charles's." You only put an apostrophe at the end if it's plural. It's a very common mistake, but the only justification they give is because it "looks right." Grammar doesn't work like that. :)

Answer 5

they're right, charles's is correct. i'm not sure why, but i'm a journalism student and that's how we're supposed to write things like that!