Plain English. Marian Wharton

Thus:

       James's (pronounced James-ez.)

       Mr. Lynch's (pronounced Lynch-ez.)

      The only exception to the rule occurs when the addition of another s would make too many hissing sounds, then we add the apostrophe alone. Thus:

       For goodness' sake.

       In Jesus' name.

      91. In forming the possessive of compound nouns, the possessive sign is always placed at the end, thus:

       My son-in-law's sister.

       The man-of-war's cannon.

      92. When we wish to show that a thing belongs to two or more persons who are joint owners of it, we add the possessive sign to the last word only, thus:

       Carson, Price and Scott's store.

       Mason and Hamlin's pianos.

      If it is a separate ownership that we wish to denote, we place the possessive sign after each name, thus:

       Bring me John's and Mary's books.

       Lee's and Grant's armies met in battle.

      Remember that the noun has just three changes in form, one for the plural number, one to denote gender and one for the possessive form. Watch carefully your own language and that of your friends and note if these changes are correctly made.

      Exercise 3

      Write the plural form of each of the following:

       ax

       beef

       chief

       hero

       knife

       T

       hoof

       man-of-war

       axis

       basis

       cherry

       leaf

       son-in-law

       Mr. Smith

       thief

       Doctor Wood

       alley

       buffalo

       chimney

       staff

       Frenchman

       Miss Brown

       ox

       spoonful

       alto

       calf

       cargo

       two

       3

       tooth

       foot

       turkey

       Exercise 4

      Underscore the nouns in the following:

      How many abstract nouns?

      How many concrete?

      How many singular?

      How many plural?