Yours, Mine, and Ours

Understanding possessives can possess a lot of our time and yet, as Patricia T. O’Conner notes in Woe Is I, “For an acquisitive society, we’re awfully careless about possessives.” If you care to take care, read on. The easy stuff: If a word is singular, add an apostrophe. After seeing one of Manet's paintings, Perdita's career goal changed from lawyer to saucy wench. If the word is a proper noun and ends in an s, just add the apostrophe. After seeing one of Degas’ paintings, Paris’ ambition was to be a ballerina. If a word is plural and doesn’t already end in an s, add apostrophe-s. The women’s lounge in “The Women” was where all the action took place. The look in the deer’s eyes said, “let me live!” If it already ends in an s, just add the apostrophe. The winners’ celebration party went on and on. Here’s where things get ugly: According to AP Style (my company’s default on matters of usage), if a word ends in double-s, like “witness” or “princess,” add an apostrophe-s unless the following word begins with an s, as well (got that?). The princess’ story undermined the witness’s testimony. The appalling falling apostrophe: Not all possessives have apostrophes. The possessive of “it” is "its" (if you can substitute “it is,” it’s "it’s"). The possessive of "who" is "whose" (if you can substitute “who is,” it’s "who’s"). The possessive of “their” is “theirs.” The possessive of "ours," "his," and "hers" are as written. When there’s more than one owner: When Biff and Bink possess something in common, consider them a single unit with apostrophe-s after the last possessor’s name. Biff and Bink’s summer place was divine! If both Biff and Bink have their own divine summer places, each gets his own apostrophe-s. Biff’s and Bink’s summer places are divine!

Also, thank you to all who visited and commented upon Word Wise this past week since it went live, as well as to those of you who sent me e-mails about it. I look forward to our continued dialogue.

Note: I have to admit I hate the triple-s thing AP Style suggests. Opinion, however, is divided on whether that’s the best way to go on this aspect of possessives. For a more expansive discussion about possessives, check your own dog-eared copy of AP Style, visit The Chicago Manual of Style Online, or take a look at this.   

Comments

[Jim]

In reference to Biff and Bink's summer place, can you clarify how to denote that the summer place is mine and his? Is "My and his summer places..." correct?

[Dan Santow]

Jim, why wouldn't you just say "our summer place"? Why make it more complicated than it has to be?

[Jim]

Ah, I thought you might say that. Maybe a better example would be if you wanted to highlight a specific person instead of using a pronoun. For example, "Jim's and your..." vs "Jim and your..." Does that make more sense?

[Katie]

Dan, how do you feel about using an apostrophe-s to contract the verb "is?"

For example, "Every Monday's half price," meaning every ticket is half price on all Mondays. I know it's awkward, but is it incorrect? Would it be better to say "Mondays are half price" and assume the reader knows that means every Monday?

[Dan Santow]

Jim, you’re right, in this case both possessors have to be in the possessive form.

Katie, I have to admit that in the example you cite, assuming the sentence is used in regard to baseball or drinks at a bar or something similarly laid back, I don’t mind the way it’s constructed (and it’s not incorrect as far as I can tell). It’s all about context, after all. If it’s being used by the Chicago Lyric Opera to hawk tickets to its latest production of “Turandot,” well, then I might question its propriety.

[Andrew Galbraith]

Great post, Dan. I'd like to add that the possessive can be particularly tricky because some organizations have proprietary "rules": adidas, for instance (which also stubbornly refuses to capitalize its name), dictates that the possessive should be adidas', not adidas's!