correct punctuation

[pilotlight]

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

[Jugglering]

2 ... but then I only went to a grammar school...lol

[squarebear]

This comes up quiet a lot here. 2 is the correct version but 1 would be acceptable too. 3 is wrong.

[bensmum]

Definitely 2 is correct

[stonekicker]

um...no. number 2 only!

[hippyhoppy]

I concur with squarebear - but this time I'm not copying! lol

[Caribeing]

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]

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]

But this was 40 years ago... maybe the *rules* have changed...

[squarebear]

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]

it is number 2. why are people continuing to debate this? google it if you don't believe me...

[hippyhoppy]

concur with Juggerling too!!

[sara3]

I vote for no. 2!

[factor-fiction]

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]

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.....

[whiffy]

When I was at Cambridge we had our names on our doors, and it just said "Bertie" or "Gerald" or "Potter Minor" no controversial stuff with apostrophes. So your answer is "Charles". Don't get tied up in grammatical details.

[squarebear]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Thankyou everyone for your inputs - problem solved.