So, how many apostrophes are OK? Any number: "Sarah’s daughter’s boyfriend’s mother's dog's food" is fine. 18 (43%) |
Three is the limit: "Sarah’s daughter’s boyfriend’s mother" is fine. 3 (7%) |
Two: "Sarah’s daughter’s boyfriend" is fine. 19 (46%) |
One: "Sarah's daughter." 1 (2%) |
I tend to agree with two; otherwise, it becomes way too cumbersome. If you want to indicate possessives of possessives, you could use of: "the mother of Sarah's daughter's boyfriend," but I still think that's cumbersome. Perhaps I should revise my opinion to one only.
I'm surprised that some of you would allow any number!
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3 comments:
I struggled with a similar apostrophe problem while creating our family calendar. I could not decide on the following (sharing the same birthday):
Diane Martin's and Diane Smith's Birthday
Or Diane and Diane's birthday
Which is correct?
Thanks for the helpful and informative blog.
If they share something, they share the apostrophe. Please see CS 116 for more info.
I wish I could get my students to use apostrophes at all!
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