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[toby99]

When using apostrophes i.e. Mr Jones' coat you put the apostrophe after the S � How would you write the lioness' tail � would it be the lioness' tail or lioness's tail? Thanks

[888sally888]

I think it would be lioness' tail.

[squarebear]

Either are correct. However, tradition tends to use lioness' tail rather than lioness's tail in exactly the same way as Mr Jones' coat. They are both words that end with S and so should both obey the same rule.

[whiffey]

Springwatch is on at 8pm, just look at Kate Humble's gorgeous lithe enjeaned legs and weep for the tragedy of crossed legs.

[ChuckFickens]

the lioness's tail is correct, unless there is more than one lioness then it would be the lioness' tail

[ChuckFickens]

sorry lionesses' tails

[toby99]

I always thought that if the word ended in an S that you put the apostrophe after the S' and I would have written Lioness' but my daughter had to write a play for her school on wild animals and her teacher corrected her and put Lioness's. However, it wouldn't be the first time the teacher has been wrong though so I am confused - thanks

[ChuckFickens]

the normal example I was always given is a shop owned by a person or persons with the name jones

if it was owned by a Mr Jones on his own it would be Jones's shop

but if owned by both Mr & Mrs Jones it would be Joneses' shop

This is a bit high brow for chatterbank!! may I suggest you put things like this in phrases and sayings next time... it's making my head hurt having to remember back that far :)

[Panic Button]

The apostrophe goes after the s for plural possessive.

E.G Scouts' hut, parents' house

because there is more than one scout or parent.

However there is only one lioness, so it can be written as lioness's (singular possesive)

However it is grammatically acceptable to just put s' after singular possessive, though I can't for the life of me think why.

I would always write Mr. Jones's coat, and lioness's.

I looked into this at the local library,as my son's name ends in S. I was surprised when his teacher used s' for something he owned.

[toby99]

Thanks all

You are probably right ChuckFickens, but I didn't really know where to put this question. On the otherhand, how many of us actually go into phrases and sayings? (I didn't even know there was such a category) and I wouldn't have had all these great answers.

[Drisgirl]

I have the same prob with my daughters name -it ends in 'ss' and if I want to say **ss' room that is the proper grammatical term but most people would put **ss's room which is wrong because an apostrophe indicates a missing letter. So daft as it looks we go for the proper grammatical term and follow it by an apostrophe.

[wee willie]

jesus'

[toby99]

Hi Drisgirl - I felt awful because I made my daughter cross it out when she put s's and made her change it to lioness' tail only to get it marked incorrect by her teacher - I am still not sure as I would have thought the teacher would get it right before me.

[ChuckFickens]

Hi toby again

As panic button said, it is actually correct with singular nouns ending in an s to do it either way, so you can add a 's or an apostrophe alone. So you could argue with the teacher marking it wrong, it is not wrong, it's just not the way they do it.

Weirdly after a bit of research on this it would also seem the exception is religious names when it has to be an apostrophe on it own, such as, Jesus' strength, Achilles' heel.

How the hell did punctuation get so damm complicated :)