Grammar question?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Moshe Kruger wondered: <<Apostix (an imaginary name) is very similar  
(especially the last three letters) to the real name of one of my  
clients. What should be the genitive (possessive) form of the name?>>

You're overthinking this: Apostix's.

Pretty much any English word can be turned into a possessive by adding  
the apostrophe-s. You can even do that with words that end in "s",  
though by convention, we usually don't. Some believe that a possessive  
can only be done for living things (or even more exclusively, for  
humans), but that's simply incorrect. "The dog's paws" is not only  
more idiomatic than "the paws of the dog", it's also shorter (ditto  
for "the world's problems" and its inverse).

Note that if you find the x's awkward, it's simple to avoid the  
problem by judicious rewriting once you establish the context  
(Apostix): "the company's solutions include", "our/these/the  
aforementioned solutions", "solutions offered by Apostix", etc. Most  
readers will appreciate not being marketed over the head with the  
company name every sentence, so use pronouns and these other revisions  
more frequently than the company name.

<<What is certain is that an apostrophe must be added. It is untenable  
to write: Apostix real-time solutions.>>

It's not at all untenable if you preface the phrase with an article  
("the Apostix solutions", "an Apostix solution"). In English, any noun  
can be used adjectivally in this way. Trust me on this... it's not  
just a Geoff thing. <g>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Geoff Hart (www.geoff-hart.com)
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Effective Onscreen Editing:
http://www.geoff-hart.com/books/eoe/onscreen-book.htm
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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