What is the correct word to use instead of else’s?

Question

If I am trying to say, “That problem that belongs to someone else,” then what is the correct word to use in this sentence:

That is someone else’s problem.

My spell checker says else’s and elses are not words and does not have a correction suggestion for it. What is the correct word to use?

Just a FYI, the spell checker that is missing the word is the one included with Firefox 6.0. — Scott Chamberlain, Aug 31 '11 at 16:19

score 16 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 20 '12 at 18:50

16

I would say, "That's an SEP". Anyone who knows me would know what I mean.

In any event else's is perfectly fine. Dictionary.com's entry for else says, "other or in addition (used in the possessive following an indefinite pronoun): someone else's money."

edited Aug 20 '12 at 18:50

RegDwigнt

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answered Aug 31 '11 at 16:14

David Schwartz

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As an impecunious teenager, I always used to say my preferred cigarette brand was SE. By far the cheapest! – FumbleFingers Aug 31 '11 at 17:29
Nice reference to Douglas Adams. – Chris Mar 08 '16 at 03:13

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 31 '12 at 17:46

There is nothing wrong with "someone else's". Inexplicably, many spelling checkers don't automatically recognize possessives of user-added words, so don't try to read much out of that.

From a grammatical perspective, the key insight is that -'s is not a word clitic, it is a phrase clitic. For example, it may be informal or even a little unidiomatic, but it is not ungrammatical to utter or write sentences like the following:

I take exception to the senator from Maryland's remarks. The package that arrived on Monday's return address was somewhere in Texas. The man I was talking to's attitude really bothered me.

Worrying about the placement of the possessive clitic is someone else's hang-up.

Thanks for that. I usually deal in computer language grammar, and I wouldn't have had a word to express the 'clitic'. Honestly, it would have been some time before I bumped into the "phrase clitic"... from a computer grammar perspective. Thanks for the solid help. — Erik Bennett, Jan 18 '18 at 02:29

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 13 '12 at 10:33

0

"Another's" I'd say. "Someone else's problem" is idiomatic and totally ok too.

answered Jun 13 '12 at 10:33

What is the correct word to use instead of else’s?

3 Answers3