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Subject:Possessive form of name ending with apostrophe? From:Jay L Gordon <jaylgordon -at- gmail -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Fri, 6 Mar 2015 11:29:29 -0500
A student in a tech writing class of mine asked a question I couldnât answer, and Google was no help. Heâs an IT tech at the university and wanted to know how youâd show the possessive form of a name ending in an apostrophe. Just use a single apostrophe or, to be strictly logical, use two?
I asked whether the name may have included a vowel at the end that was meant to have an accent but the person typed an apostrophe (so instead of AndrÃ, the person typed Andreâ). He said, nope, heâs seen it enough times to believe the names definitely end in an apostrophe.Â
The question, was, in a nutshell:Â
For the name Andreâ, would you write the possessive as Andreâs or Andreââs?
I told him I had no idea of any convention for that.
Any thoughts?
--Â
Jay L Gordon
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