The Genitive

Okay, this is for the benefit of J:

The rules for writing the possessive are pretty well known: add an 's to the end (ex: Angie's house), and just add ' if the possessor is plural (ex: friends' house).

But two questions that pop up regularly are:

1) Is friends' pronounced "friends-iz" or "friends"?

2) What is the deal when the possessor is singular (regular or proper noun) and ends with an s?

Here is the lowdown:

1) friends' is pronounced "friends". Likewise, parents' is pronounced "parents", and so on. In general, when the possessor is plural with an s at the end, the possessive is pronounced as if there were no apostrophe.

2) (a) In writing: In most cases, we add an 's at the end (ex: James's house, the hostess's house), even though they end with an s. However, classical names that end with "-uhs" or "eez" take only an apostrophe, no s (ex: Jesus', Moses', Archimedes').

(b) In pronunciation: If it is written 's, say the s; if it is written ' (no s), don't say the s. The exception to the rule is with the classical names (Jesus', Moses', Archimedes'): here we have a choice of either saying the s or not, even though there is no s written.

It's important to remember that language evolves, so the rules are always changing. For example, the possessive of James used to be written with ', no s. This is why, for example, it is acceptable to say either "St. James' Cathedral" or "St. James's Cathedral".

Makes sense?