ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3510, 21 June 1921, Page 53

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Transfer.—Dr aith waites, Princes street, Dunedin, are the agents for Weldon's publications, and the transfers are obtainable from them. Perplexed.—The possessive case is formed by adding ’s to the noun. The old inflection for the possessive case was es. The apostrophe supplies the place of the missing “e.” . There are three ** kinds of instances in . ■which the s, but not the apostrophe, is omitted—(l) After all plural nouns ending in s, as horses’ tails; (b) when the last syllable c£ a singular noun begins and ends with an s, as Moses’ laws, but cno must say Venus’s beauty, James’s hat, etc.; (c) whenever the last syllable of a singular noun ends with s or ce and the noun is followed by “sake,” as conscience’ sake. If the noun is of cno syllable the s must not be omitted, as Ross’s sake, etc. In plural minis onl} 7 tho apostrophe is left, as horses’ unless the plural ends in n, as men s. The possessive case was once used with any kind of noun, but it is now restricted, the following examples :—(1) Nouns denoting x sGr_ sons—a man’s foot. (2) X-uns denoting any kind of living thing other than mail — a bird’s feathers. (3) Xeuns denoting personified things—Fortune’s favourite. (4) Xouns denoting time, as a day’s journey; space, as a stone’s throw; weight, as a pound’s weight. (5) Xouns denoting certain dignified objects, as the court’g decree. When one possessive case is in apposition with another the apostrophe is added either to the first or last, net usually to both, as, He called at Smith’s, the grocer. It is not wrong, though it may not be usual, to say, as seme do, He called at Smith’s the grocer’s. The apostrophe s may be added to tire last word of a phrase when the phrase is regarded as a compound n©un, and denotes some person or persons, as, My son-m-law's house; Jones’s warehouse; the Cleaners’ and Firemen’s Association, and the Drapers* and Clothiers’ Industrial Union of Employers are correct.