GRAMMAR: s's vs. s'

Eliezer Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Sat, 25 Jan 1997 23:20:06 -0600

[Interjects Lorrey:]
> Sorry, any name naturally ending in s gets an apostrophe only when in
> the posessive. I don't know what school of non grammer you learned at,
> but that was something I did definitely learn.

Say WHAT? Nobody is saying Descarte's. Descarte's is NEVER, EVER
right, possessive or no possessive, although I do occasionally write
(and backspace over) "Chalmer's".

We're debating Descartes' vs. Descartes's, for the possessive of course,
and I happen to have a reknowned grammar book ("The Elements of Style")
in front of me, and I also happen to be right (unless the style has
changed since whenever the book was published, which is a possibility).

-- 
         sentience@pobox.com      Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
          http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/singularity.html
           http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/algernon.html
Disclaimer:  Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.