It is Strunk and White’s Elements of Style rule 1.1: “Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's. […] Thus write, Charles’s friend[.]”
Others, however, will write, “Charles’ friend.”
To me, the second looks and sounds weird. And for sometimes it is really weird. Take “Camus” for example. If we use the second form, the apostrophe does all kinds of weird things to the pronunciation of the “s.”
Think of how you pronounce things. Most people say, “Congress’s current session ends in four days,” not “Congress[’] current session ends in four days.” Possessives should be written the way they are pronounced.
Strunk and White (and other style references) only dictate how newspapers and formal or academic documents are written out. They don’t have anything to do with the spoken word or colloquial written usage. In the end, the peoples using a language determine its grammar. NOT the other way around.
I’m a former grammar prescriptivist myself, because I was taught AP English by one. So I can understand on one hand where prescriptivists come from. On the other, there’s no excuse for adhering to prescriptivism in the long term. There is no right and wrong when it comes to language, as long as you and your audience are mutually intelligible.
Use style guides for formal writing if and when you’re required to do so. And realize that no matter what any individual or governing body tells people to do, people will talk how they want to talk and write how they want to write. And, over time, language idiosyncrasies change, no matter how much the prescriptivists whine about it.
This is not a tragedy, it is evolution. Embrace that and be happy.
Strunk and White is only one style manual. The Associated Press Stylebook is another – and most print and broadcast media follow it or some variation of it.
The AP definitively states that nouns ending in “s” (singular or plural, e.g., girls, measles, United States, General Motors) add only an apostrophe. So most media outlets will follow that style. (I’m not familiar with the Chicago Manual of Style, which is used by most outlets that don’t use AP)
Granted, the AP adopted that style back in the days when newspapers were typeset by hand, and saving a letter or a space was more important than it is now. But that’s their style, and they’re sticking with it.
You also must remember newspapers want to use the least amount of font possible. So to them it would be extra work to write Jones’s House and they would want Jones’ house.
I always learned use s’s.
Since English has no board of standard grammar, either is acceptable and neither is wrong so long as it’s consistant.
It’s simple to me:
’ after a plural noun ending in s.
's after a singular noun or name, no matter what letter it ends with; or after a plural noun not ending in s.
The next word doesn’t figure into it.
– from Wheelz’s common sense rules of style, 2010.
Yep.
If I’m visiting a guy named James, I’m going to James’s house.
If I’m visiting the James family, they’re the Jameses, and I’m going to the Jameses’ house.
Says more than just Wheelz. As far as I’ve been educated, Wheelz is right on target.
Again, I am not saying that anything is definitively wrong, because that smacks of grammar prescriptivism. But you’re trying to prescriptivize Wheelz (on a commonly-accepted and commonly-taught construction, no less), and that’s quite silly.
I took this to mean that you don’t add an extra syllable when when you pronounce James’s. And I most certainly say you do.
Now, I have heard people who say Jesus’ name, instead of Jesus’s name. In fact, I remember some rule about the lone apostrophe for historical figures before some date, maybe 1950.