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Earlier I wrote a sentence that happened to end with a plural possessive. Is this OK to have? For example, "I got the guys' costumes, but not the girls'." looks odd to me. It would be easy to reword or simply add costumes at the end, but is it grammatically correct?

herisson
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Michael Blake
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3 Answers3

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Consider the following progression:

"I found my ticket, but not yours."

"I found my ticket, but not John's."

"I've enjoyed some Victorian novels, but not Dickens's." [pronunciation as indicated]

"I found our tickets, but not the Smiths'." [pronunciation as indicated]

"I saw our neighbours at the show, but not the Smiths'."

I think the perceived problem is with the ambiguity when reading out the plural possessive. Odd-sounding, and perhaps better rephrased, but I wouldn't say breaking any rule of grammar.

Edwin Ashworth
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  • Hi Edwin. In your example, why wouldn't it be "Williams'?" Is this just a typo, or purposeful use of "Williams's?" – njboot May 21 '14 at 07:43
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    It could be either (this has been discussed before ), but I wanted the Williams's and Smiths' versions, with the convention (accepted by some but not all) that the s's variant adds/marks an extra syllable, in that order to illustrate the progressive descent into ambiguity. – Edwin Ashworth May 21 '14 at 07:47
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    With 'William' and 'Williams' both being surnames, I've switched to 'Dickens'. The possessive (singular) is argued to be Dickens' or Dickens's, and usually to correspond logically to two or three syllables. Here, the unapostrophised abstractish noun Dickens (ie his works) also works. – Edwin Ashworth May 21 '14 at 08:29
  • With your edit, the distinction is intuitively clearer. With your explanation, the distinction is crystal clear. Cheers. – njboot May 21 '14 at 08:30
  • @msam That's what Dickens does for you. – Edwin Ashworth May 21 '14 at 16:50
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Syntactically there's nothing wrong with your sentence, the grammar checks out. If it still feels a little too funky for you, you could try:

I got the costumes for the guys, but not for the girls.

scohe001
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It is perfectly correct and accepted usage to end a sentence with an apostrophe, but what is technically correct may not always satisfy the ear. As for the previous answer, it's better but still slightly off. Try "I got the costumes for the guys but not for the girls," which eliminates the slight ambiguity. (It sounds like you're getting the girls rather than the costumes for them.)

Jatab
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