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the possessive of James is spelled James's and pronounced - / z ɪ z /, but, singularly, the possessive of Jesus is often spelled adding only an apostrophe (Jesus ') and is and was usually pronounced the same (/ˈdʒiːzəs/). Singular nouns ending in s also form a possessive regularly by adding ' s, as in Charles's / ˈ tʃ ɑːr l z ɪ z / or ...
Note that the ending can be added at the end of a noun phrase even when the phrase does not end with its head noun, as in the king of England's; this property inclines many linguists towards the view that the ending is a clitic rather than a case ending (see below, and further at English possessive).
Possessives of singular nouns ending in s may be formed with or without an additional s. Either form is generally acceptable within Wikipedia. Either form is generally acceptable within Wikipedia. However, if either form is much more common for a particular word or phrase, follow that form, such as with Achilles' heel .
For plural nouns that do not end in s, add an apostrophe and an s to form the possessive, for example, children's, not childrens'. Kaldari 03:19, 23 Jan 2005 (UTC) How about getting to the point more quickly, like this: "Possessives of words ending in 's' may be formed with or without an additional 's'." Either is generally acceptable within ...
The apostrophe is also used to mark the genitive for words that end in an -s sound: words ending in -s, -x, and -z, some speakers also including words ending in the sound . As Norwegian does not form the plural with -s, there is no need to distinguish between an -s forming the possessive and the -s forming the plural.
Old English had a genitive case, which has left its mark in modern English in the form of the possessive ending 's (now sometimes referred to as the "Saxon genitive"), as well as possessive adjective forms such as his, their, etc., and in certain words derived from adverbial genitives such as once and afterwards. (Other Old English case markers ...
Possession may be marked in many ways, such as simple juxtaposition of nouns, possessive case, possessed case, construct state (as in Arabic and Nêlêmwa), [3] or adpositions (possessive suffixes, possessive adjectives). For example, English uses a possessive clitic, 's; a preposition, of; and adjectives, my, your, his, her, etc.
In modern regional English dialects that use thou or some variant, such as in Yorkshire and Lancashire, it often takes the third person form of the verb -s. This comes from a merging of Early Modern English second person singular ending -st and third person singular ending -s into -s (the latter a northern variation of -þ (-th)).