Possessive form of Mrs. (with full-stop/period)

Question

Let's assume I have a text talking about Mrs. Jones and I want to start a section talking about her childhood. Which of the following forms, if any, is valid?

Mrs.'s childhood

or

Mrs.' childhood

or

Mrs'. childhood

Is there a rule for the possessive of "Mrs." whose last letter is an s but not the last character? Or should this simply be avoided and

Mrs. Jones's childhood

has to be spelled out?

Wise people would probably avoid any such written form to avoid having their prose look terrible. (And hardly any decent writer would capitalize "childhood" in this context–which is why I edited your question. Just as you did not capitalize it the first time you used it.) — Arm the good guys in America, Aug 06 '17 at 13:07
Honorific titles such as Mr., Mrs., Ms. are ordinarily used only with following surnames, never as free-standing proper nouns. — StoneyB on hiatus, Aug 06 '17 at 13:17
@Clare I totally agree, but I'm translating a poorly written text into English with some very hard constraints about doing it word-for-word as much as possible (government constraints...) so I was wondering if rules existed about this. — dee-see, Aug 06 '17 at 13:18
Mrs "who" will be the question you're most likely to face. You need to say Mrs Jones Otherwise you could say the "the woman's/married woman's childhood" — Mari-Lou A, Aug 06 '17 at 13:19
The rules are (1) as much as possible and (2) it's near-impossible to give an accurate and concise translation of a poorly written text. Do you translate errors word for word? How can you tell what the errors are and what the text should be? — Edwin Ashworth, Aug 06 '17 at 13:25
You could use the spelled out missus. Merriam-Webster says that it is informal, but Wikipedia mentions that it may appear as such in dialogue in literature. I'm still not sure how you would make it possessive, because it brings about the whole Jesus' vs. Jesus's debate, which is highly contested. — vpn, Aug 06 '17 at 13:26
I'd write Mrs' childhood. Or Missus' childhood before I would write any of the three you ask about. — Arm the good guys in America, Aug 06 '17 at 13:27
@EdwinAshworth It's not an error in the original language but I wasn't so sure about English (which is not my first language as you might have guessed), hence the question. It's now clear that I'll have to spell out Mrs. Jones's entirely. — dee-see, Aug 06 '17 at 13:30
@Clare Since you were first on the scene, if you want to write an answer that says that this should not be done go ahead and I will accept it. — dee-see, Aug 06 '17 at 13:31
Well I don't agree it should not be done. I am saying that I would try to avoid writing any of the three options you ask about and that I would pick from at least two other forms if forced to come up with a way to conform to the "government restraints" you mention. Most of here are familiar with unreasonable government restraints. If forced to choose from among your three options I might do so at random and take no personal responsibility for it. — Arm the good guys in America, Aug 06 '17 at 13:41
Vache, the question isn't suitable for the ELU format as it's asking which the best of three very non-standard usages is. Adding an answer would invite further such inappropriate questions. — Edwin Ashworth, Aug 06 '17 at 13:42
This question does not appear to be about English language and usage within the scope defined in the help center. — Edwin Ashworth, Aug 06 '17 at 13:43
@EdwinAshworth I rewrote the question, still with my three non-standard options but leaving the door open for something else. Is it answerable now? — dee-see, Aug 06 '17 at 13:50
Related: What is the correct possessive for nouns ending in “‑s”? and When can you omit the possessive on an honorific? and When did it become correct to add an “s” to a singular possessive already ending in “‑s”? — Mari-Lou A, Aug 06 '17 at 13:57
You could probably substitute "Madam" for "Mrs." if a more formal/old-fashioned tone is acceptable. — 1006a, Aug 06 '17 at 15:53
Is the person married or not? In Italian, a woman past the age of 40 can be called signora, which also stands for Mrs, but "signora" is more flexible. A waiter can greet me with "signora" in Italy but in the UK or the US it will be madam and ma'am respectively. But writing "Madam's childhood" is not... right. Although it's perfectly grammatical. — Mari-Lou A, Aug 06 '17 at 18:07
I'm going to vote to close because you want the rules for something which is neither said nor written in English. — Mari-Lou A, Aug 06 '17 at 18:10
Because Mrs's = missuses is something I have never heard anyone ever say and here's the proof: What is the plural of Mrs? — Mari-Lou A, Aug 06 '17 at 18:19
@Mari-LouA “Hey, go give this to the missus, wouldja?” “I’d best not; the missus’s door ain’t been open yet today.” — tchrist, Aug 07 '17 at 12:09
Very much related How to use a the possessive "s" after a dot?. It is a precedent, of sorts, for Mrs.'s — Arm the good guys in America, Aug 15 '17 at 13:50

score -3 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 06 '17 at 14:00

-3

None of the above. "Mrs." functions as an adjective. Sometimes an adjective (say, blue in "the blue team") can be understood as a noun, e.g.

I think blue's ahead.

Mrs. can't be used similarly, e.g.

I think Mrs.' order is ready. (incorrect)
I think the Missus' order is ready. (acceptable but idiomatic)

Better is your own suggestion:

Mrs. Jones' childhood ...

or

Her childhood...

answered Aug 06 '17 at 14:00

anongoodnurse

55,278

1

-1 it is clearly not functioning as an adjective when it is not preceding a name. – Arm the good guys in America Aug 06 '17 at 14:14
1

@Clare - Can you tell me, is it an adjective when someone says, "Is it Miss, Mrs., or Ms.?" How is it different from is it blue, red, or yellow? You're wrong. It's still an adjective. It's not an adjective in "the Missus", because it's synonymous with wife. – anongoodnurse Aug 06 '17 at 14:55
2

-1 Your statement Mrs. can't be used similarly, e.g. I think Mrs.' order is ready. (incorrect) is way to prescriptive for me to not DV it. – Arm the good guys in America Aug 06 '17 at 14:59
@Clare - I didn't even understand that comment. Are you reading my answer correctly? If you think that "I think Mrs.' order is ready." is correct, we disagree. I'm not going to change it to remove a downvote. – anongoodnurse Aug 06 '17 at 15:01
@Clare *too* not to! – marcellothearcane Aug 06 '17 at 15:11
@marcel People do make typos know and again. – Arm the good guys in America Aug 06 '17 at 15:18
You went from saying it functions as an adjective (which needs qualification) to "its an adjective", witch is tons worse. – Arm the good guys in America Aug 06 '17 at 15:26
@Clare it's 'marcello' and yes, I do know that, but I've seen it twice in succession now... Just letting you know :) – marcellothearcane Aug 06 '17 at 15:54
@marcel is a way to ping you. If that doesn't work, let me know. I may of written witch just to bait people. So watch out. – Arm the good guys in America Aug 06 '17 at 16:04
@Clare: And should we assume that you wrote may of just to “bait people”? – Scott - Слава Україні Aug 07 '17 at 00:43

Possessive form of Mrs. (with full-stop/period)

1 Answers1