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Possible Duplicate:
Is “my wife and I's” correct, or should it be “my wife's and my”?
Preferred way to apostrophise in case of dual or multiple ownership by distinct entities?

What is the correct grammar to use in a phrase like "Chris' and Claire's email addresses"? Is it correct to add the apostrophe to each owner in the list?

tchrist
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Andrew Moss
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1 Answers1

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I assume the fact that OP's example specifies addresses in the plural means that Chris and Claire have separate email addresses.

Thus the phrase is actually a contraction of "Chris' email address and Claire's email address", so both apostrophes are valid (I personally would write Chris's, but opinions may differ on that).

FumbleFingers
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  • Yes, I was referring to separate email addresses. As a Computer Scientist I shouldn't be so ambiguous!

    I think I will start using the "Chris's" form based on the couple of questions here: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/1073/what-is-the-correct-possessive-for-nouns-ending-in-s http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/2964/when-did-it-become-correct-to-add-an-s-to-a-singular-possessive-already-ending

     – Andrew Moss Sep 05 '11 at 12:31