Re: Possessive apostrophe with singular nouns ending in "s"

[Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>]

Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:
> A critical question. What is the standard form in GNU manuals for using
> the possessive apostrophe with singular nouns ending in "s"?
>   This is one of Emacs's most important features.
>   This is one of Emacs' most important features.

What I've always heard (and which seems eminently practical) is that
one should just follow the actual pronunciation, which is pretty easy
for a native-speaker to check.  Most things get an explicit "'s" (so
it makes sense for that to be the default if it's unclear), but some
words just sound downright weird that way, so it should be omitted for
them.

[Emacs sounds OK either way to me, but I'd say "Emacs's" should get
the nod...]

-miles

-- 
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