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Subject:Re: Possessive of a name that ends in X From:"Glanbrok, Slayer of Bluntskulls" <conehead -at- OVERTHE -dot- NET> Date:Fri, 12 Jul 1996 15:32:24 -0400
Sigrid Schoepel asks:
How would you punctuate a name that ends in X to make it possessive?
Ajax'
Ajax's
Man the battlements! Defend our principles! Strunk & White, we need you now!
In my dim view of grammar, the only time it's right to drop the final "s" in a possessive is when the noun itself is plural:
rhinoceroses' horns not rhinoceroses's horns
hunchbacks' calluses not hunchbacks's calluses
There's also the anomalous false plural
Mrs. Andrews' apple pie
which contrasts with
Mrs. Childress's dead horse
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