EASY EDITS: Exceptions to the Possessive Rules

By DeAnna Cameron //

Last month, we covered how to properly create possessive words with an apostrophe, and those rules apply most of the time. Sometimes there are exceptions, though.

The first exception that can stump writers involves applying apostrophes (or not) in expressions of joint possession, meaning that something belongs to two things at once. When both things can be considered a single unit, only the second one takes the apostrophe and an s, according to The Chicago Manual of Style.

her grandma and grandpa’s car

Rob and Ellie’s daughter

When the two nouns are intended to indicate separate things, an apostrophe and an s should be applied to both nouns.

Los Angeles’s and San Francisco’s freeways

Jack’s and Jill’s bicycles

A possessive can also be used to mean of in instances when the writer intends to indicate a double possessive, which The Chicago Manual of Style describes as a possessive form that is “preceded by of where one of several is implied.”

a colleague of Jane’s (when the meaning is a colleague of hers)

The apostrophe and s should not be applied if the meaning is not intended to indicate a literal possession.

a student of Jung

The final peculiarity is one that sends me to the reference books every single time. It’s the use of possessives to replace of in expressions such as in four weeks’ time. The rule, according to The Chicago Manual of Style, is the possessive can be used if the meaning is in four weeks of time. Here are a couple more examples:

a day’s delay (if the meaning is a day of delay)

three months’ leave of absence (if the meaning is a three-month leave of absence)

 

Question: Are there any peculiarities relating to possessives or the use of apostrophes that stump you? Please share them in the comments.


DEANNA CAMERON is the founder and managing director of O.C. Writers. She’s also an award-winning hybrid author currently writing YA dark fantasy as D.D. Croix and an occasional copy editor who’s never met an Oxford comma she didn’t like. Learn more at www.DDCroix.com.

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