Else's or Elses' or Elses

Question

In the statement:

In life, try to often make yourself a minor character in someone elses novel.

where - if anywhere - does the apostrophe go?

I must misunderstand the purpose of englsh.stackexchange.com if this is off topic. — Nicholas Saunders, Dec 09 '23 at 16:33

score 15 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 17 '15 at 11:05

15

It's "else's". Here, someone else is a singular compound noun, and the novel belongs to them. The possessive apostrophe is used.

answered Nov 17 '15 at 11:05

Nuclear Hoagie

1

Thank you. I will tick this. Is there ANY time that it's elses' ? – Daniel Stowers Nov 17 '15 at 11:08
3

I can't think of any situation where you'd ever have the plural elses, since it's either an adverb, adjective, or part of a singular or uncountable compound noun. So, with no plural form, you'd never see the plural possessive form elses'. – Nuclear Hoagie Nov 17 '15 at 11:39
An established user like yourself should know to vote to close questions like this rather than answer them. – curiousdannii Nov 17 '15 at 13:00
4

Thank you for answering this question and not closing it, it's the first google result when looking and it explains why it is how it is and isn't how it's not. – phazei Jun 22 '18 at 17:09
3

It would be a real shame to have closed this question. I too found this question and answer helpful. – Eric Seastrand Apr 03 '20 at 17:57
1

It's a real shame that this question has been closed, but at least it hasn't been deleted. And the reason given for closure is false, and directly contricts the FAQ for this stack. Specifically, this quesiton is on topic according the these reasons: Questions on the following topics are welcomed here: Word choice and usage, Grammar, Spelling and punctuation. – Self Evident Apr 13 '21 at 16:02

1 Answers1