Apostrophe after 's name examples

An apostrophe is used in a possessive form, like Esther's family or Janet's cigarettes, and this is the use of the apostrophe which causes most of the trouble. The basic rule is simple enough: a possessive form is spelled with 's at the end.

Hence:

Lisa's essay

England's navy

my brother's girlfriend

Wittgenstein's last book

children's shoes

women's clothing

the aircraft's black box

somebody's umbrella

a week's work

my money's worth

This rule applies in most cases even with a name ending in s:

Thomas's job

the bus's arrival

James's fiancée

Steve Davis's victory

There are three types of exception.

First, a plural noun which already ends in s takes only a following apostrophe:

the girls' excitement

my parents' wedding

both players' injuries

the Klingons' attack

the ladies' room

two weeks' work

This is reasonable.

We don't pronounce these words with two esses, and so we don't write two esses: nobody says *the girls's excitement. But note that plurals that don't end in s take the ordinary form: se

singular possessive apostrophe names ending in s

possessive apostrophe if name ends in s