...not Frances' blog. I am not the pleural of France, therefore why am I not allowed that extra s that is given to other people's possessives?
This is a common misuse. It appears regularly in published books and newspapers. Any noun that ends in an s - personal or not - is refused that extra s for its possessive (Jesus', Mavis', Boris' etc etc).
This has been bugging me for some time, and now I've finally got it off my chest. Phew!
(My iPad refuses to use my name at all, and calls me France's unless I manage to stop it in time.)
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I find it a real pain when I'm writing as I always have to stop and think about it (even though I was an English teacher!)
ReplyDeleteAh, but then Wendy doesn't end with an s, so you don't have a vested interest!
DeleteJust to be safe I shall always refer to this as the blog of Frances.
ReplyDeleteI rather like that. It has a certann ring about it...thanks, Patsy!
DeleteYou are allowed the extra "s"! Accordingly to my Little Brown Essential Handbook, only when the additional "s" would make the word difficult to pronounce (Moses') or when the name sounds like a plural (Rivers') would you be advised to add only the apostrophe.
ReplyDeleteWhat's an iPad know? About as much as spell check in my word documents.
Thanks, Yvonne. As for the iPad, it just doesn't have Frances in its vocabulary, and I haven't worked out how to change it. I get rogue emails addressed to "Dear France's"...
DeleteIn E. B. White's immortal example in his introduction to Strunk's Elements of Style, the headline should have read "Charles's Tonsils Out" and not "Charles' Tonsils Out" -- in other words, your point is noted, understood, and disseminated throughout the hinterlands by the likes of me. Of course, no one hereabouts ever pays the slightest attention to my ravings.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to your post on the Oxford comma.
I do! (pay attention to your ravings, that is).
DeleteNow I shal have to go and look up Oxford comma. And there I was, thinking I knew it all. Blogging can be veryhumbling sometimes...
On one blog where I have to put my name in to comment it often changes it from Frances to France's, and it is quite difficult to make it change back! ( and that is on the main computer ..Mac, not my iPad. I tend not to use the ipad for comments as it is annoying in other ways too)
ReplyDeleteAh! Another Frances, who sill understand the problem. My iPad is obviously in league with your Mac.
DeleteFrances, you don't have to write a post on the Oxford comma. I found a perfectly delightful one (albeit American) from 2011 here. As the ubiquitous they say, have a look-see.
ReplyDeleteLooked it up. Brilliant! Thank you.
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ReplyDeleteThis one, from 2013, is a lot of fun and quite instructive.
ReplyDeleteThere is also a song called "Who the [CENSORED] Cares About the Oxford Comma?" by a group called Vampire Weekend. They have produced this video, which is too involved for me to follow. The lyrics, which are meaningless even after I googled them, are unrelated to the film, which also seems meaningless. Maybe that's the whole point.
Will look this up later. I've now got to go and sing to the new Archdeacon (long story...).
DeleteAt least your sex isn't changed, as mine so often is, being called "Mike" instead of Meike...
ReplyDeleteOh yes it is. All the time. There's Francis (male)!
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