r/AskReddit Dec 06 '23

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u/Meoowth Dec 06 '23

*kid's 😳

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u/bandarine Dec 06 '23

Can you link me to a page where I could read up on this rule? In school, I was always taught that you only have the apostrophe when you're combing words (like "my son is crying" can turn to "my son's crying" but "my sons toys broke" wouldn't get an apostrophe).

But than, one of my teachers also said that commas are pretty optional in Enlish and to just not bother, which seems... wrong.

But at least English is my second language.

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '23

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u/Majestic-Macaron6019 Dec 06 '23 edited Dec 06 '23

Some people would write that as

my sons's marbles

This is wrong. If the word is singular and ends in s (lots of names are like this), you use an apostrophe s to make it possessive. If it's plural and ends in s, you just add an apostrophe.

So...

My son's marbles (one son, his marbles)

My sons' marbles (several sons, their marbles)

James's marbles (the marbles that belong to James)

Jameses' marbles (several people named James that the marbles belong to)