Correct English Possessives

[Donald D. Markstein]

 >You may, indeed, apply this rule to names ending in -s -- "Keats' 
poems" is
 > as correct as "Keats's poems".

No it isn't. It's not remarked on very often, because it's such a common error that it would be tedious to do so (which is the only objection I have to the original post), but it's still an error. In English, the apostrophe followed by S is ALWAYS used to indicate possessive case, except with a PLURAL noun that ends in S. The fact that the error is often seen even in professional publications is no more an indicator of correctness than is the fact that even professionals often use the plural noun "media" as if it were singular, an indicator that the singular usage is correct.

In both cases, common usage may eventually render it "correct" -- that's how it is with living languages. But in neither case is it there yet, and I doubt it will be in my lifetime.

Sorry for being tedious, but you should hear me on the subject of misusing the noun "suspect" in TV news broadcasts, e.g., "The suspect then shot the clerk and escaped". No, that's what the CRIMINAL did -- the suspect is the person ACCUSED of having done it. Suspects always have names. Either TV news people are a bunch of semi-literates, or they're out to put across the idea that whoever gets caught is necessarily the one who committed the crime. (My family is really tired of hearing this.)

Quack, Don