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correct punctuation

How would ' Charles's room ' be written on a door ?
1. as above
2. Charles' room
3. Charleses room


pilotlight  Fri 25/07/08 20:12
Jugglering
Fri 25/07/08
20:14
2 ... but then I only went to a grammar school...lol
squarebear
Fri 25/07/08
20:14
This comes up quiet a lot here. 2 is the correct version but 1 would be acceptable too. 3 is wrong.
bensmum
Fri 25/07/08
20:16
Definitely 2 is correct
stonekicker
Fri 25/07/08
20:17
um...no. number 2 only!
hippyhoppy
Fri 25/07/08
20:17
I concur with squarebear - but this time I'm not copying! lol
Mary T
Fri 25/07/08
20:22
How about Charles lives here, or the room of Charles saves a lot of bother. However the correct way is Charles's room Just as you would say e.g. Jack's room
Jugglering
Fri 25/07/08
20:24
I always was taught that if the name (ie Charles) ended in an *s* then you did not add the extra *s*, if it ended in any other letter, then you did add the apostrophe and final *s*
Jugglering
Fri 25/07/08
20:25
But this was 40 years ago... maybe the *rules* have changed...
squarebear
Fri 25/07/08
20:26
Sorry Mary, that is wrong. Names that end with S don't take an extra S.

James' not James's
Charles' not Charles's

The extra S has come in common usage now and is acceptable but the correct way is option 2.
stonekicker
Fri 25/07/08
20:26
it is number 2. why are people continuing to debate this? google it if you don't believe me...
hippyhoppy
Fri 25/07/08
20:27
concur with Juggerling too!!
sara3
Fri 25/07/08
20:28
I vote for no. 2!
factor30
Fri 25/07/08
20:29
There is no right answer. You will churches called St Thomas's and others called St Thomas'. Many argue for Charles' but I prefer Charles's on the basis that this is how it is spoken aloud.
Jugglering
Fri 25/07/08
20:30
LOL I think certain rules must have changed over the past few years.... one of my colleagues decided that a report written by a member of his staff was gramatically incorrect because they had written *its* to mean the possesive pronoun of *it*... He declared that it should be *it's* because if you write the possessive of *Jack* it is *Jack's*.... When I saw said report the errors leaped out into my face but he swore black and blue that he was right... until I showed him the relevant page of the Concise Oxford Dictionary.....
squarebear
Fri 25/07/08
20:33
Oh yes. It's and its always seem to cause fun too.

Speaking of apostrophes, why not click on the Music section of the board where you can check out a sub heading called "CD's DVD's and Videos".
Buenchico
Fri 25/07/08
20:33
The BBC TV programme 'Balderdash and Piffle' always contains a round where the teams have to provide the correct punctuation. In almost every programme they have to point out that while the form <Charles' room> is frequently used (and, indeed, is widely accepted) it is most definitely wrong. The correct punctuation is <Charles's room>.

Chris's answer
Quizmonster
Sat 26/07/08
07:38
Both 1 and 2 are perfectly correct. Even when there are three s sounds involved, it is still OK to include them all, though the final one is often dropped. For example, one can write about Jesus' crucifixion or Jesus's crucifixion. With only two letters s involved, you can, for example, write about Keats' poems or Keats's poems.
In the Charles case, exactly the same applies.
Quizmonster
Sat 26/07/08
07:53
I should perhaps have added above that Sir Ernest Gowers, regarded as an authority on English usage, in his Plain Words, opens the section on apostrophes in names ending in s with the words...
"There is no universally accepted code of rules governing the formation of the possessive case of names ending in s."
He goes on to illustrate the point. From the horse's mouth!
pilotlight
Sat 26/07/08
09:42

Question Author

Thankyou everyone for your inputs - problem solved.
terambulan
Sat 26/07/08
09:49
Charles's room.
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