'Petrovski's home/residence' or 'Petrovski home/residence'

Question

What's correct? Petrovski's home/residence or Petrovski home/residence. Note that Petrovski is the family name (last name), not the first name.

I know that for first name is always 's, but what about family name?

You need to provide the context. Perhaps a sentence in which you would like to use it. Both are correct in different circumstances. — Jim, Oct 28 '15 at 21:35
for example "I'm hanging out with my friends at Petrovski residence" or is it at Petrovski's residence? "The party will be at Petrovski home" or at Petrovski's home? — billythekid, Oct 28 '15 at 22:07
@billythekid you'd need the definite article for "at the Petrovski residence" or "at the Petrovski home," just as you would for "I'm hanging out with my friends at the residence" or "the party will be at the home." — phoog, Oct 28 '15 at 22:23
You can also use Petrovskis' as an alternative - meaning that xbelongs to the Petrovski family. For example, I'm hanging out at the Petrovskis' home. — Ben, Oct 29 '15 at 00:48
OR Which grammatically correct use of the apostrophe will lead to a valid “NOUNs’s” construction? (I've simplified the title, the original one is more convoluted) — Mari-Lou A, Nov 28 '15 at 06:04

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 28 '15 at 21:56

It would be correct to simply use the non-possessive "Petrovski". For example, "The Petrovski home is large enough for a party." Using the possessive would also be correct, as long as the possessive matched the number of persons being referenced in the household. So it might be "The Petrovskis' home..." if there is more than one person in the household, or "Bob Petrovski's home..." or "The Petrovski home...."

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

Both are correct. In Petrovski residence, the name functions as an attributive noun or noun adjunct (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noun_adjunct). This is analogous to phrases such as tool box and bus stop. That is, it is a residence that happens to be characterized by the fact that its resident is Petrovski; the fact denoted by the phrase is the answer to the question "who lives in that residence?"

In Petrovski's residence, the use of the possessive indicates a relationship between the two nouns (not necessarily one of actual possession). In other words, the question answered by the phrase is "where does Petrovski live?"

It should be noted that if more than one Petrovski lives in a place, it could be called the Petrovskis' residence, in which case it would be answering the question "where do the Petrovskis live?"

(With regard to the question of actual possession, note that the residence or home might not even be real property. It could be a city or a country, as in, for example, He often traveled to Ukraine, but Russia was Petrovski's home. See also my answer to Use of the apostrophe when possession is not the issue.)

'Petrovski's home/residence' or 'Petrovski home/residence'

2 Answers2