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St Johns Wood or St John's Wood?
Richard J. wrote: wrote: Martin Rich wrote: On Fri, 23 Jun 2006 23:24:05 GMT, "Richard J." wrote: IIRC (I don't have the book to hand at present), she said that if people invent a brand name, one should reluctantly accept it as it stands, and quoted "St Thomas' Hospital" as an example. St Thomas' Hospital gets a specific mention along these lines in the Times style guide ( http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...41-560,00.html and scroll down to 'apostrophes') where the hospital's house style takes precedence over the newspaper's Martin Thanks for that link, Martin. I have read it and disagree profoundly with their accusation that St. Thomas' Hospital is a "whim". How patronisingly offensive. Their basic rule is to "follow the rule of writing what is voiced". Everyone who I have heard speak the name of the hospital have said "St Thomas's", so to write it any other way is indeed a whim. Would they be equally patronising when referring to "Jesus' birthplace" or "Zeus' Temple" or "King James' Version" (as in bible)? Only one of these is of two syllables, and none of these are of Greek origin or a "whim"! They seem to use "King James version" without an apostrophe. And, I'm sure (in the days when I still read that newspaper, before it became tabloid) I have seen "Dickens' works" or similar, and never "Dickens's works" which I would have remembered! And, I have NEVER seen either in that newspaper or elsewhere reference to "The Times's Letters Page" or the "The Times's leader"! They used "Dickens's" on 20/5/06. Their style guide allows "The Times's style" OR "Times style". The simple and easy-to-remember rule is to omit the final "s" in all possessive plurals. That's fine, but the discussion that you initiated was about possessive *singulars* where the name ends in "s". Sorry, Richard, my mistake: I should have written The simple and easy-to-remember rule is not to use an "s" after the apostrophe in all possessive nouns (singular or plural) which end in "s". Generally, the accepted rule is to add "'s" to the name, as in St James's Park, with certain exceptions including old Greek names, Jesus, etc. As someone whose surname ends in an "s", I find it offensive (well, annoying anyway) if someone treats it as a plural noun, or sticks the apostrophe in the middle of my name (before my "s"). I would agree with you. Most people mis-spell my Christian name too! -- Richard J. (to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address) Marc. |
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St Johns Wood or St John's Wood?
On Sun, 25 Jun 2006 Richard J. wrote:
They seem to use "King James version" without an apostrophe. That's OK. It's The King James version, not the version belonging to the king. -- Thoss |
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