Do you know how to use apostrophes?

tastyfish

Charles Dickens's... I get that. S-apostrophe-s.

But it then gave me:
Jimmy Connors'... I would've expected the same rule as "Dickens's".

Is the reason for s-apostrophe-s because that final 's' is just another letter like any other. Eg. Like the 'n' at the end of Thomas Brown which would give you Thomas Brown's house (last letter-apostrophe-s) in the same way as Charles Dickens's house (last letter-apostrophe-s).

My gripe is with an S in an abbreviation. For years I argued with a colleague that is should be UCAS's application form, not UCAS' application form.

Just because it's popular doesn't necessarily mean a rule is right!
Good quiz

Fizzymartini

russellelly wrote: »

I assume the quiz accepted multiple answers for those questions?

It didn't, hence my confusion!

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Some people say that biblical and classical names ending in an "s" shouldn't have an extra "s" after the apostrophe but other names should.

Interesting, I hadn't heard that before! Doesn't explain Charles Dickens's / Jimmy Connors' though.

Thanks all. I wasn't sure if I was missing something but it seems the quiz is just being inconsistent.

Chickabiddybex

I aced the tricky one but was really poor at the second one!
Why is it "London's and Rome's" but "John and Anne's"? What's the difference?

JimmyTheWig

Chickabiddybex wrote: »

Why is it "London's and Rome's" but "John and Anne's"? What's the difference?

The difference is what follows it.
"London's and Rome's museums" could be written as "London's museums and Rome's museums" - i.e. they are different things (or, more specifically, different examples of the same thing if you like).
"John and Anne's daughter" is refering to something (the same thing) belonging to both John and Anne together.

Credit-Crunched

"With the help of our expert financial advisers, St James's Place"

Correct or Incorrect?

HHNN

Pedant's corner: "There is healthy competition between all the ____." ... well, competition AMONG all the DJs if there are more than two; or BETWEEN two DJs.
(re davetheginge, message 19)