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Bechtel, John Hendricks, 1841-

"Slips of Speech : a Helpful Book for Everyone Who Aspires to Correct the Everyday Errors of Speaking"

These
plurals form their possessive by adding the apostrophe; as, horses',
countesses', foxes', churches', princes'. Nouns whose plurals are
formed otherwise than by adding s or es, form their possessive
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case by adding the apostrophe and s, just as nouns in the singular do;
as, men's, women's, children's, seraphim's.
Pronouns
Sometimes the mistake is made of using the apostrophe with the
possessive personal pronouns; as, her's, our's, it's. The personal and
relative pronouns do not require the apostrophe, but the indefinite
pronouns one and other form their possessives in the same manner as
nouns; as, "each other's eyes," "a hundred others' woes."
Double Possessives
"John and Mary's sled," means one sled belonging jointly to John and
Mary. "John's and Mary's sleds" means that one sled belongs to John,
the other to Mary.
"Men, women, and children's shoes for sale here." When several
possessives connected by and refer to the same noun, the sign of the
possessive is applied to the last one only.
When a disjunctive word or words are used, the sign must be annexed to
each word; as, "These are Charles's or James's books.


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