-'

Pronunciation
Pronunciation of -s&apos;, -es&apos;:

Particle

 * Her heart leapt when she saw the expressions on her teachers’ faces.
 * their faces’ expressions
 * The countesses’ husbands were generally quite lavish.
 * Jesus&apos; disciples
 * Chris&apos; cake recipe
 * Jesus&apos; disciples
 * Chris&apos; cake recipe

Usage notes

 * The plural possessive -s’ can be distinguished from the possessive marker -&apos; on nouns that terminate in -s and from the possessive marker -'s (which see). Whether they are pronounced identically or differently varies between idiolects. The BBC prescribes the following distinction: (a) Dickens novel and Dickens’ novel, Dickens’s novel ; princess’s and princesses’ ; i.e. adding bare ’ does not change pronunciation. Some speakers, however, may pronounce one or both as , i.e. Dickens’ as , princesses’ as , and e.g. boys’ as (instead of the more common ).
 * Traditionally, the possessives of classical and Biblical names ending in s, such as and, were written without a final “s”, i.e. the possessives were formed using bare &apos;: Archimedes’ Principle (the principle of Archimedes), Jesus’ disciples (the disciples of Jesus). This may or may not be be distinguished from -'s in pronunciation; see -'s for more. The American Heritage Dictionary (under the entry "possessive") extends this to other words or names having at least two syllables, such as Dickens&apos; or witness&apos;. In modern English, the practice in fact extends to all names ending in s, i.e. both "Chris' recipe" and "Chris's recipe" are found:
 * -’ may also be used on nouns ending in an s sound (i.e., not necessarily ending in the letter s).
 * -’ may also be used on nouns ending in an s sound (i.e., not necessarily ending in the letter s).
 * -’ may also be used on nouns ending in an s sound (i.e., not necessarily ending in the letter s).

Suffix

 * 1) forms the possessive of words ending in s, x or z

Usage notes

 * See notes at.