Monday, January 26, 2009

Poll Results 20

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:

  1. UnknownFebruary 12, 2009 at 9:25 PM

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Sentence SleuthFebruary 13, 2009 at 7:57 AM

    If they share something, they share the apostrophe. Please see CS 116 for more info.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MandaFebruary 15, 2009 at 8:51 PM

    I wish I could get my students to use apostrophes at all!

    ReplyDelete

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