can somebody tell me when it is apprropriate to use an apostrophe AFTER an "s"?

Question

There are instances where an apostrophe is used after an "s", such as " processes' ". When is it appropriate to use one in this manner?

Answer 1

It is still a possessives apprropriate of nouns, but you add ' to the end of plural nouns that end in -s:

houses' roofs
three friends' letters

Answer 2

It's fairly simple, with one or two odd cases to be aware of.

An apostrophe after a final s signals possession (technically, the 'genetive case') where the noun doing the possessing is in the plural.

"The cat's pyjamas"
"The cats' pyjamas"

These are slightly different. In the first, just one cat's pyjamas are being referred to. In the second, it's the pyjamas of more than one cat.

"The children's cat" is correct, but "the childrens' cat" is wrong. This is because "children" is already in the plural, so the final 's' here is not a plural-s, therefore the apostrophe must come before the final s. The grammatically strict reason is that the old possessive form of "children's" was "childrenes", and the apostrophe is used to show that this final 'e' has been dropped (or 'elided') to leave it as "children's".

Some people think that an apostrophe must be added to the end of the word if the word ends in an s. So some say that

"Jesus' teachings"

is correct, whereas others say that

"Jesus's teachings"

is correct. In this kind of case, it's usually better to let the actual pronunciation be your guide, and most people would pronounce this in the second form.

Another common example of a noun ending in 's' is Jones. One could say

"This is Jones' book" or "This is Jones's book". If we're talking about one person, called Jones, then the second form is correct, because we would always pronounce it that way anyway.

If you were talking about the whole Jones family, you might ask something like

"Do you have the Joneses' address?"

Here, the plural form, for euphonic ('how it sounds') reasons, of Jones is Joneses. (As in, for example, "The Joneses live at number 25.") The last 's now also indicates a plural, so the apostrophe follows it without another 's'.

Answer 3

You use an apostrophe in two circumstances: one is to replace a missing letter eg in didn't where the apostrophe represents the letter o of 'did not' or it's for "it is". The second is a 'genetive' or possesive apostrophe where the apostrophe +s means 'belonging to...'. For words not ending in 's' you have an apostrophe + s eg the cat's whiskers = the whiskers belonging to the cat. For words ending in s you have the apostrophe after the s eg the singers' manager = the manager of the singers.
The one that catches people out is "its" meaning belonging to it. That is the same as his, hers, its; so no apostrophe. But people often stick one in anyway.....

Answer 4

An apostrophe is used after the "s" when you're talking about an object belonging to a group of people. For instance, "the soldiers' tank" means that there's more than one soldier but "the soldier's tank" means that there's only one soldier. I hope this helps.

Answer 5

Kinning Park is correct. I would always write "Jesus's desciples" since I have learned the rule to denote possession of a SINGULAR item (e.g. Jesus) is to add ('s), whether the words ends in an S or not.
So: Dave's car
Jesus's car
The (single) boy's car

For PLURAL words, which generally end in an S, you just need to add the appostrophie after the last S.
The (plural) boys' cars

As Kinning said, some plural words don't end in an s (e.g. childern, people, men) so in those situations you just add ('s) after the word
The men's cars
The people's cars

Most importantly you need to stay consistent in your writing, so there isn't confusion like the Jones' family which Kinning raised.

Hope that clears everything up.

Answer 6

You put an apostrophe after an s when the word you need to put an apostrophe next to already ends in an s e.g. james' else it would be james's and that just looks wrong. Hope that helps!

Answer 7

It ability you're hibernating and doing no longer something, get out and do something priceless with your existence. regardless of reason you're interior the dumps must be thrown out somewhat, be a purpose-setter/getter and make your self satisfied by making use of understanding you have achieved something good. do no longer sulk, do no longer hide from each and every physique or from something. Be energetic, be seen. the place to get one? start up with your person self.

Answer 8

There are many complex rules of grammar. The best authority on this is Professor ("Papa") Earnest Gower's book, Plain Words, available in paperback, the literary man's bible.

Answer 9

The apostrophe denotes possession.
the cat's whiskers - the whiskers belonging to the cat in question
the cats' whiskers - the whiskers belonging to more than one cat or all the cats in question
the cat's whisker - one whisker belonging to one cat
the cats' whisker - one whisker shared by more than one cat, just not possible unless they're all joined in a line by one long whisker. Interesting thought but just imagine the fights!

Answer 10

When a plural noun ends in an S. You use an apostrophe.

eg. The ladies' changing rooms were clean.

Answer 11

First apostrophes are used either to form a contraction eg in can't instead of can not, OR to show possession of something.

Eg. John's boat <--- because the boat belongs to John.

Now, when used after the S, it is because the word already ends in S anyway eg "Jesus' ball" so technically it would be "Jesus's, but because it would look wrong to add a last 's', we just omit the last one.