“There is a long tradition of conservative circles fretting about international influences on the German languages,” said Stefanowitsch. “It used to be French, and now it’s mainly English”.
Heh.
The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse removed. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
However, guidelines issued by the body regulating the use of Standard High German orthography have clarified that the use of the punctuation mark colloquially known as the Deppenapostroph (“idiot’s apostrophe”) has become so widespread that it is permissible – as long as it separates the genitive ‘s’ within a proper name.
Rule 1: In general, you form a possessive singular noun (both proper and common) by adding an apostrophe and the letter S to the end of the word.
the flower’s petals
Riley’s car
That’s simple enough. It’s when the car belongs to a person named Chris, or we’re talking about the petals of a crocus that the rules get blurry. Most experts and guides say you should add an apostrophe and an S to both proper and common nouns to make them possessive even when they end in S. So, using the examples above, it would be:
* Chris’s car
the crocus’s petals
Not everyone agrees with this method, however, and some, such as the Associated Press Stylebook, nod in favor of adding only an apostrophe to make a proper noun possessive, such as:
Chris’ car
Dickens’ novels
To add even more confusion, AP Style also has an exception if the word following the possessive starts with an S, stating that in those cases only the apostrophe should be added. So it would be:
Texas’s people
Texas’ streams
In 2019, the AP raised quite the ruckus when they tweeted that they were considering adding an S after the apostrophe for singular proper nouns, as in Mavis Staples’s album or Martha Reeves’s concert. To date, no changes have been made, but as you can see, it’s an ever-evolving, highly volatile topic.
Plural nouns ending in S
Rule 2: Plural nouns, on the other hand, generally don’t get an extra S, just an apostrophe. Most experts suggest you form the plural form of the word first, then add the apostrophe.
For example:
the Joneses’ house
the classes’ rules
Most say possessive words should generally read as you would speak them.
The one-syllable rule
When it comes to historical proper names or those found in the Bible, however, there is another rule many choose to follow.
Rule 3: According to some, those words with two or more syllables typically just get an apostrophe after the final S, while one-syllable words getting both an apostrophe and an S.
For example:
Jesus’ teachings
Zeus’s temper
Some people apply it to more recent names as well, such as Dr. Seuss’swritings or Kenny Rogers’songs, while others believe they all should also get an additional S.
Singular nouns in plural form
Rule 4: When it comes to singular nouns that are plural words, they typically just get the apostrophe.
For example, the Beatles is a singular noun, but it’s in the form of a plural word. So, it would be:
The Beatles’ album
For the sake of …
Rule 5: Whether a noun ends in an S or not, if it’s followed by the word sake, most say it just gets an apostrophe.
For example:
for goodness’ sake
for conscience’ sake
for appearance’ sake
Others, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, say if the word before sake ends in an S, then it should just get an apostrophe. Others should get an apostrophe and an S. So, it would be:
for goodness’ sake
for conscience’s sake
for appearance’s sake
Like, there’s a whole rabbit hole to go down there.
While you’re right that there is a rabbit hole to go down, we just didn’t have a solution for this so far.
“Matthias’ car” translates as “Matthias Auto”, which could also be a new Disney character.
The problem is much less frequent in German, though, because our plurals don’t generally end with a ‘s’.
I wouldn’t know having seen an apostrophe in genitive in a formal text before, but no idea. Maybe there’s regional differences. Would explain why Duden lists both.
Ich wüsste nicht, dass ich schonmal einen Apostroph beim Genitiv in einem formalen Text gesehen hätte, aber ja, kein Plan. Vielleicht gibt’s da auch regionale Unterschiede. Würde erklären, warum der Duden beides listet…
But Duden listing Matthias as a possible genitive is wild. It seems they just list it in a weird way, because Jeremia is certainly not a reasonable genitive of Jeremia:
Hmm, I think Jeremia is an irregular case, due to it mostly being a biblical name and I think in biblical texts, they write it as “des Jeremia”. No idea, if that was just en vogue when the bible got translated or what the reason is for that.
Heh.
–James Nicoll
Hmm.
So how do they deal with the more-complex cases?
https://www.thesaurus.com/e/grammar/whats-the-rule-for-doing-a-possessive-after-the-word-s/
Like, there’s a whole rabbit hole to go down there.
In German it would be like:
Franks Haus.
Franz’ Haus.
A way without the apostrophe could also be „Franzens Haus“ (but that’s out of style since a few decades)
While you’re right that there is a rabbit hole to go down, we just didn’t have a solution for this so far.
“Matthias’ car” translates as “Matthias Auto”, which could also be a new Disney character.
The problem is much less frequent in German, though, because our plurals don’t generally end with a ‘s’.
What? That’s completely untrue! Any time, the word ends on an s sound, the apostrophe moves to [the end of the word].
Matthias’s car (or alternatively, Matthias’ car) is Matthias’ Auto.
Assuming the final e is not pronounced, Alice’s car becomes Alice’ Auto. Alternatively, it can be Alices Auto if the final e is pronounced.
Interestingly, the Duden also spits out
Matthias'
as possible genitive: https://www.duden.de/deklination/substantive/Matthias_VornameBut I was then unsure, if they had already integrated the Deppenapostroph-rule.
I wouldn’t know having seen an apostrophe in genitive in a formal text before, but no idea. Maybe there’s regional differences. Would explain why Duden lists both.
Original German comment:
Interessanterweise hat der Duden auch
Matthias'
als möglichen Genitiv ausgespuckt: https://www.duden.de/deklination/substantive/Matthias_VornameAber ich war mir dann unsicher, ob die schon direkt die Deppenapostroph-Regel aufgenommen hatten.
Ich wüsste nicht, dass ich schonmal einen Apostroph beim Genitiv in einem formalen Text gesehen hätte, aber ja, kein Plan. Vielleicht gibt’s da auch regionale Unterschiede. Würde erklären, warum der Duden beides listet…
(Ftr: This is an English-language community.)
But Duden listing Matthias as a possible genitive is wild. It seems they just list it in a weird way, because Jeremia is certainly not a reasonable genitive of Jeremia:
Hmm, I think Jeremia is an irregular case, due to it mostly being a biblical name and I think in biblical texts, they write it as “des Jeremia”. No idea, if that was just en vogue when the bible got translated or what the reason is for that.
But the Duden describes the general rule of thumb for nouns ending in ‘s’ (or similar sounds) by extending them with “-es”: https://www.duden.de/sprachwissen/sprachratgeber/Genitiv-auf-s-oder-es
But “des Matthiases” just sounds archaic.
They also list “des Hans” as the only possible genitive: https://www.duden.de/deklination/substantive/Hans_Mann
So, maybe these are special cases, too…