Here is my sentence: "Julia's experience is similar to that of Robert's."
Would it be correct to put an apostrophe ('s) after Robert?
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7No it wouldn't. You've already indicated "possession" with the word *of, and except for "quirky" usages such as [friend of his*](http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/50588/why-is-it-usually-friend-of-his-but-no-possessive-apostrophe-with-friend-of), we don't normally expect this kind of "double genitive". – FumbleFingers Feb 04 '16 at 22:16
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3You could say Julia's experience is similar to Robert's – Henry Feb 04 '16 at 22:23
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2This would absolutely be correct if you wanted to say that Julia's experience is similar to the experience Robert's experience experienced. – John Clifford Feb 04 '16 at 22:32
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It seems likely that a question asking essentially the same thing that this one does already exists on this site—but I sure can't find it. – Sven Yargs Feb 04 '16 at 23:56
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@FumbleFingers: "this experience of David's was...." – herisson Feb 05 '16 at 01:39
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@sumelic: Sure, plus an experience of his, and a friend of David's. But you can't say they're similar to that of hers** (OP's, I mean! :) – FumbleFingers Feb 05 '16 at 02:05
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1@Sven: I think this one sorta "bleeds across" to the friend of his/him one. It's the pronouns that sharpen the focus, and here it would unquestionably be Her experience is similar to that of him. Except we'd normally shift the possessive to the pronoun: [hers] is similar to his*. Whatever - I think it's potentially at least as interesting* as the other question, and there does seem to be some overlap. – FumbleFingers Feb 05 '16 at 02:20
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Related question, Why is it usually “friend of his”, but no possessive apostrophe with “friend of Peter”?. – Feb 05 '16 at 02:57
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@FumbleFingers: That "friend of his"/"friend of Peter's" question definitely has some overlap with this one—and it is both well asked and well answered. Thanks for pointing it out. (I hadn't gleaned from your earlier comment that it was so similar to the present question.) Still, Maria W1234's question, besides being well titled, has a canonical aspect in the specific case where "X's experience" is being compared not with "his experience" but with "that of Robert['s]." It seems sufficiently different to deserve in-depth answering on its own, I think, if anyone is up to the task. – Sven Yargs Feb 05 '16 at 03:29
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I found As such, the reader may mistakenly equate Luke's intention to be similar to that of John's.** easily enough. And two instances of similar to that of my wife's**. They feel "wrong", but there's obviously something leading people to "double up" the possessive markers - and I suspect it involves the same process here as in the friends of his** context. – FumbleFingers Feb 05 '16 at 13:55
2 Answers
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Your sentence should be "Julia's experience is similar to that of Robert." If you were to say eg. "Julia's experience is similar to that of Robert's brother." then you would need the possessive apostrophe.
uklancs
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1But there is also something to be said for the parallel presentation that the wording "Julia's experience is similar to Robert's" provides. The choice between those two options isn't one you can base on a superior claim to grammatical correctness of one or the other, in my opinion. – Sven Yargs Feb 04 '16 at 23:51
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I'd say "Julia's experience is similar to Robert's".
If you include 'that of', no apostrophe should be used in my opinion.
Matthias Kauer
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I agree with the first sentence, but not the second. "The experience of Robert" is not idiomatic, so I don't think "Julia's experience is similar to that of Robert" is idiomatic either. – herisson Feb 05 '16 at 01:37
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