User talk:Bkmarcus

Sorry, I made a mess of King Charles' head. Please feel free to improve that entry. King Charles's head should be marked as an or. But King Charles' Head with a capital on Head is incorrect. Yours Conrad.Irwin 20:39, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

singular possessive
Conrad.Irwin, thanks for catching the spurious capital and thanks for expanding the entry. Thanks also for teaching me some wiki syntax; I'm new here, as the rest of this message will no doubt reinforce.

I'm confused about your change in the spelling of the singular possessive, from Charles's to Charles'.

I see 3 arguments for the former:


 * 1) The reference is originally to Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, where it is spelled "King Charles's head."
 * 2) The Chicago Manual of Style says, "The possessive of a title or name is formed by adding ’s {Lloyd’s of London’s records} {National Geographic Society’s headquarters} {Dun & Bradstreet’s rating}. This is so even when the word ends in a sibilant {Dickens’s novels}..."
 * 3) The much more accessible Elements of Style says the same in its very first rule:


 * Form the possessive singular of nouns with 's.
 * Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write,
 * Charles's friend
 * Burns's poems
 * the witch's malice
 * This is the usage of the United States Government Printing Office and of the Oxford University Press.
 * the witch's malice
 * This is the usage of the United States Government Printing Office and of the Oxford University Press.
 * This is the usage of the United States Government Printing Office and of the Oxford University Press.

Is there a Wiktionary style guide I should be referring to instead?

Thanks again.


 * Looks like I was wrong too then - sorry. Conrad.Irwin 20:05, 16 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Incidentally, having looked this up on Google books, it seems that both spellings are used, so we should document both, though you may want to switch around the entries so that the "Charles's" form is the main one, and the "Charles' " is a or . Yours Conrad.Irwin 20:12, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Welcome template
Seeing as you seem to be sticking around, here are some explanatory (if slightly boring) links.

Conrad.Irwin 20:05, 16 May 2008 (UTC)