Singular and plural common nouns and names not ending in -s

- add s to singular nouns and to names not ending in -s: a child's dream, the dog's kennel, Frank's new job If two names are joined by and, add 's to the second: John and Mary's bank balance Scott and Amundsen's race

- add 's to singular nouns ending in -s: an actress's career, a waitress's job

- add 's to irregular plural nouns:

children's games the men's club, sheep's wool

- add an apostrophe (') after the s of regular plurals:
boys' school, girls' school Cheltenham Ladies' College

2 Nouns

S with compound nouns

With compound nouns the s comes after the last word:

My sister-in-law'sfather is a pilot The rule also applies to titles, as in: Henry the Eighth s marriages the Secretary of State's visit Two genitives are also possible, as in:

My brother's neighbour'ssister is a nurse

The use of the apostrophe after names ending in -s

We add 's to names ending in -s: Charles s address Doris s party However, we can sometimes use' or s: St James' (or St James’s) Park, Mr Jones (or Jones’s)car St Thomas' (or St Thomas’s) Hospital. No matter how we write the genitive in such cases, we normally pronounce it as lizl. With some (especially famous) names ending in -s we normally add an apostrophe after the -s (pronounced /s / or /iz/:Keats’ works Yeats’ poetry

We can show possession in the plural forms of names ending in -s by adding an apostrophe at the end: the Joneses houses, etc. With ancient Greek names we add an apostrophe after the -s, but there is no change in pronunciation, Archimedes' being pronounced the same as Archimedes- Archimedes’ Principle

Initials can be followed by s when the reference is singular: an MPs salary (= a Member of Parliament's salary), ors' when the reference is plural: MPs salaries [> 2.24].

2.45 The pronunciation of s and s'

The pronunciation of s ands depends on the sound that precedes them and follows the same rules as for plural nouns [> 2 21]: e.g. /s/: Geoff's hat Jacks/ob a months salary. Pats handbag /z/. Ben s opinion Bill s place Bob s house the workers club /iz/: an actress s career, the boss s office, Mrs Page s jam