Anton Sherwood wrote:

>
> Andrew Dunbar wrote:
> > New style:
> > 's for words not ending in s
> > no matter if they are singular or plural:
> > child's, children's, philosopher's
>
> agreed
>
> > s' for words ending in s
> > no matter if they are singular or plural:
> > Bates', philosophers'
>
> That's dated ("in Jesus' name"). The rule I follow (Fowler? Chicago
> MoS? memory is porous) is: add a mere apostrophe if the word is plural
> *and* ends in /s/, otherwise add /'s/.

Chicago says the only <-s> words that don't take <'s> are the ones that
end in /iyz/, plus Jesus and Moses.

Thus Brahms's symphonies, Caractacus's uniform, Euripides' tragedies.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...