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Give Me an S. Give Me Another S. Whataya Got?

By Roy Peter Clark

Language scholars have a word for the sound made by the letter s. They call it a sibilant, derived from the Latin word meaning "to hiss." Leave it to the scholars to call something a sibilant when they could have as easily called it a hissy, but then that might have been mistaken for a synonym we use in the South for tantrum.

In fact, E.B. White once wrote of Florida: "The South is the land of the sustained sibilant. Everywhere, for the appreciative visitor, the letter s insinuates itself in the scene: in the sound of sea and sand, in the singing shell, in the heat of sun and sky, in the sultriness of the gentle hours, in the siesta, in the stir of birds and insects." I read those sweet sentences aloud just to enjoy their alliterative music (go ahead, try it), and was surprised at how the passage hissed without sounding all snaky.

Now hold your tongue and recite: "She sells seashells by the seashore."

Sometimes an excess of s's turns the tongue into flypaper.

This brings me to E.B. White's famous teacher, William Strunk, Jr., author of the original edition of "The Elements of Style." Written in 1918, the little book on grammar, style and usage begins with this advice: "Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding s," as in "The book's utility has made it a classic." What could be simpler?

We also learn that an apostrophe plus s is all we need when the plural form of a noun ends in something other than s, as in "The men's locker room needs a good cleaning."

Which takes us to the sticky problems of sibilance created when we attach one s to another.  Professor Strunk tells us to add apostrophe plus s no matter the final consonant in the noun and cites as examples "Charles's friend" and "Burns's poems."

This makes great sense to me because it echoes the way we would speak the word aloud. So it puzzles me that the "Associated Press Stylebook," an influential work for journalists, argues that a simple apostrophe suffices after proper nouns ending in s, as in Agnes' book and Jules' seat. I don't know about you, but when I read those aloud, the missing s hurts my ears, and on the page it hurts my eyes. I would say Agnes's book and Jules's seat.

There are classic examples, of course, when adding an s gives your tongue that Velcro feeling. I would not say Socrates's teachings or Moses's laws or Achilles's heel. (Didn't know that the great Greek hero had a lisp, did you?) Socrates', Moses', and Achilles' will do fine, thank you, with the prepositional phrase as an escape hatch: the teachings of Socrates.

Why does this matter? In a recent edition of my hometown newspaper, I read a story that contained these two important sentences: "In Wes' last act, he fed a stranger and gave him a place to rest. It cost him his life." As I read this powerful story, I stopped every time I encountered the possessive "Wes'." The disconnect between my eye and ear made the absence of another s stand out like a missing trunk on an elephant. No one I know would say "Wes' last act"; they would say "Wes's." The stylebook justifies the missing s upon the values of "consistency and ease in remembering a rule." To which I ask: "What about the needs of the reader?"

Most language experts advise writers to ignore restrictions that require you to write or say something awkward or ugly, especially something that offends the ear. Let us match punctuation to speech. As long as the snake isn't swallowing its tongue, let the reptile hiss.

Summary:

1. To form a possessive singular, add an apostrophe and the letter s: "Sadie's ring."

2. To form a possessive plural, in most cases, add the apostrophe after the s: The Puritans' journey across the Atlantic ..."

3. If the plural of a noun does not end in s, add an apostrophe plus s to form the possessive: "The children's field trip ..."

4. If a proper noun (a name) ends in an s, add an apostrophe plus s in most cases, but let your ear guide you through the tough ones.

5. On this usage and all others, make sure you know which style manual governs decisions. (It may change as you switch jobs or professions.)

Full post as published by Writing Tools on June 11, 2008 (boomark / email).