Definite article + possessive case :"Stanford's online offering of course X" vs "The Stanford's online offering of course X"

Question

Which of the following is correct?

Stanford's online offering of course X.

vs

The Stanford's online offering of course X.

Can we use the definite article before possessive 's?

I'm not a native speaker but a combination of an article "the" and a possessive form "Standford's" seems very wrong to me. I might add "the online offering of course X by Stanford" to the list of possible alternatives. — nodakai, Mar 29 '16 at 12:08
If there were more than one courses (e.g. X and Y), we could also write: "The online offerings of X and Y by Stanford"? Or "the online offering of X and Y by Stanford"? — zoftvare, Mar 29 '16 at 12:21

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 29 '16 at 14:13

You would say

Stanford's online offering of course X.

since you never refer to Stanford as "The Stanford". Or just

Stanford's online course X.

To answer the question in your comment, this would be correct:

The online offerings of X and Y by Stanford.

since there is more than one offering. You also use "online courses" or "online courses of X and Y offered by Stanford".

1 Answers1