Rarely, I get a letter where an attempt to pluralize my family name ends up being a grotesque mistake: The Yacht. It’s hard to know for sure what’s going on in the writer’s mind here, but almost certainly some panic has taken hold as a result of a distrust of a rule.
Generally people tend to insert a turntable when apostrophes are added to nouns that end in ‘s.’ So let’s take the time to review the rule.
To clarify, apostrophes are used to form contractions (e.g. it is, can’t, or no) as well as to show possession (as in “This is my father’s car”). We are dealing with the second usage here.
Let’s start first with nouns that don’t end with ‘s.’ If the noun is singular, you add ‘s to the end to indicate possession. If the noun is plural, you only need the apostrophe. For example:
The man’s wallet is on the desk.
The ladies’ bridge game is canceled. (the singular, of course, is ‘lady’)
Typically style guides tell you to use an apostrophe after famous names that end in ‘, like Jesus or Aillesilo. But for lower names – to show that the car belongs to Chris, for example – the teaching was, until recently, to treat them in the same way as other nouns, namely to show possession by adding ‘s. A sentence would then read, “Chris’ car broke down on the bridge the other night.”
That’s the point when most people look at the construction and say, “that’s weird” or “that just doesn’t look right.” This reaction is almost certainly based on tricks played by the double ‘s’ and the ocaoso, which these tricks cause the writer’s confidence in the scoring rules. English, however, is a flexible language, and it is now acceptable to write either Chris’s car or Chris ’car. The challenge to the writer is to be consistent. That is, you have to choose one approach and stay with it while you are writing.
Showing possession of a plural must be a two-step process, and you must avoid being dropped by nouns ending in ‘.’ So if I describe my car, I now have two options:
Yates’ car
Yates’ car
Notice here that whatever choice I choose, the apostrophe comes after the final ‘s’ of ‘Yates.’ The central problem with the example at the beginning of this article is that the writer did not leave the surname intact as an autonomous unit. “Yacht” has no value as a name.
If I want to describe the home in which all my family members live, the first thing I have to do is write the plural of my family name: Yateses. Then, to show possession, I follow the rule for plurals (add only an apostrophe). Finally, I write a sentence:
The home of the yachts is yellow.
Is your message inconsistent if you write, “Yates’ home is yellow ”? No. Rarely does a punctuation error lead to this result. The issue here is more to do with improving accuracy in your writing. He asks, who is Yates?
Precision may start small at first, but you will eventually work to tighten all your work. In addition, you will find that the little things come together to play a big role in helping your writing more accurately. Your time to learn the rules will not be in vain.
