"
Possessive of Nouns in Apposition
When two nouns are in apposition, or constitute a title, the
possessive sign is affixed to the last, as
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"For David my servant's sake," "Give me here John the Baptist's head
in a charger," "The Prince of Wales's yacht," "Frederick the Great's
kindness."
After "of"
By a peculiarity of idiom the possessive sign is used with a noun in
the objective; as, "This is a story of Lincoln's," "That is a letter
of the President's," "A patient of Dr. Butler's," "A pupil of
Professor Ludlam's."
In ordinary prose the custom of the best writers is to limit the use
of the possessive chiefly to persons and personified objects; to time
expressions, as, an hour's delay, a moment's thought; and to such
idioms as for brevity's sake.
Avoid such expressions as, "America's champion baseball player,"
"Chicago's best five-cent cigar," "Lake Michigan's swiftest steamer."
Somebody else's
The question whether we should say "This is somebody's else pencil,"
or "This is somebody else's pencil," has been warmly argued by the
grammarians, the newspapers, and the schools.
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