where does the apostrophe go????

[crisgal]

I'm just designing a brochure for 'the assembly of the children moving onto primary school.'
So, is it
1, Leaver's Assembly?
2, Leavers' Assembly?

[rosamundjohn]

no 2

[sunny-dave]

#2

[Psybbo]

I would put Leavers' Assembly, but if Mark is around he could confirm

[WyeDyed]

It's the assembly of the many leavers so - leavers'

[chrissa1]

Plural Leavers = Leavers' Assembly.

[humbersloop]

2, it's the Assembly of Leavers, so apostrophe replaces 'of'

[sunny-dave]

I might go for "Celebratory Assembly - 2012 Leavers"

[chi-chi66]

No 2....more than one leaver

[factor-fiction]

The assembly is for more the leavers rather than for one leaver so that leads to Leavers' Assembly. (I know there is a different view in some cases- eg Patient's Charter/Passenger's Charter but there is a specific reason in those cases because the writers wanted to imply a personal contract.)
Some may argue that no apostrophe is needed at all because the leavers don't possess the assembly - the assembly is for them

[rosamundjohn]

good one this....!

[ladyalex]

Singular is apostrophe s.
If the plural ends in s , then it is s apostrophe.
Men, women , children and other nouns that do not end in s when plural , it is apostrophe s

Is what I was taught.

[chrissa1]

Here we go.

[ladyalex]

This one will run and run...

[chi-chi66]

♫ here we go

[wiltsman]

Difficult one - I'm sitting on the fence! Leaning towards number 2 though.

I get confused by apostrophes sometimes and refer to this web site:

www.apostrophe.org.uk/

[humbersloop]

there ain't (apostrophe replacing letter) no fence to be sat on ;-)

[Psybbo]

[factor-fiction]

I'm clear on all the rules apart from the accepted (but not to me) practice of placing an apostrophe after the S for a name that ends in S- eg Mr Jones' car (why not Mr Jones's car), Achilles' heel, and of course Pythagoras' theorem (why not Pythagoras's theorem?)

And I've always wondered where the apostrophe goes on possessives of plurals that end in X- eg gateaux

[humbersloop]

:-D sibton

[shoota]

Assembly for them as will not be here anymore henceforth