Singular possessive
- Jones's glasses
- My lawyer's fee
Plural possessive
- The Joneses' house
- Their lawyers' fees
1) Are these possessive forms correct? 2) Is there any difference in the pronunciation between each pair of words?
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Related: https://english.stackexchange.com/q/44026/193515 , https://english.stackexchange.com/q/1073/193515 – GoodDeeds Jul 24 '19 at 15:48
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3(1) Yes. (2) No. – Kate Bunting Jul 24 '19 at 15:58
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Both are pronounced the same way; apostrophe's are silent. In American English, /'loyərz/ and /'dʒonzəz/, singular or plural. The distinction is strictly one of printing, not of the language. – John Lawler Jul 24 '19 at 17:55
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@JohnLawler I'm curious as to your apostrophe in 'apostrophe's'... – marcellothearcane Jul 24 '19 at 18:20
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Its silent, and useless, like all apostrophes. They aren't part of English, and since they dont occur in speech and we dont have any problem with that, they dont serve any purpose, except the same purpose as neckties -- social bonding. Nevertheless, people keep not using them correctly, because while they know the rules, they don't know the right rules. Maybe nobody does, except copy editors. The rest of us dont frankly care ,since the internet ignores them too. – John Lawler Jul 24 '19 at 18:35