Comments on: How do I make "Player(s)" a possessive?

Question: How do I make "Player(s)" a possessive?

magacid — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 11:55:41 -0800

How do you show possession in the case of an optional pluralisation? For example, if the word is player(s), would you write player(s)'s? Player(s)'? Player('s|s')?

If there are any regional rules for this, ie. British vs. American, it would be great if you could note this-- I may need to use both or neither.

By: mkultra

mkultra — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:01:24 -0800

I'd suggest avoiding that messiness altogether and explicitly saying "of the player(s)" or "belonging to the player(s)".

By: googly

googly — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:02:44 -0800

How about punting by saying -one or more players'-?

By: occhiblu

occhiblu — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:11:34 -0800

I would probably change it to "each of the players' X," if possible. Just somehow get it all in the plural to avoid the "(s)" entirely.

By: spicynuts

spicynuts — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:40:00 -0800

There's an entire metatalk thread that started off about something else but devolved into a full on discussion of this, involving editors and others. Might be worth trying to find.

By: wheat

wheat — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:46:55 -0800

I'm with the others on avoiding the "player(s)" construction entirely by casting to the plural, if at all possible. Once you throw possession into the mix, it gets difficult to parse (and impossible to say out loud. Do you have some sample phrases you are considering?

By: ijoshua

ijoshua — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:47:32 -0800

I agree with mkultra. The apostrophe is grammatical sugar, and when its use becomes cumbersome, you should fall back to more verbose phrase.

By: wheat

wheat — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:47:36 -0800

* out loud).

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 13:21:41 -0800

The player('s)(s') girl.
(Could mean the player has a girl, or a bunch of players collectively have a girl. weird either way.)

I would try avoiding the construction altogether, since it results in a set of vaguely suggestive parenthesis. ;-)

By: Kirth Gerson

Kirth Gerson — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 13:30:04 -0800

Since you asked what I would do - I would not have (s) in there in the first place. Probably do the same as googly.

By: magacid

magacid — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 14:41:30 -0800

I've decided to agree with the majority here and rewrite the sentence. Since removing the parentheses aren't really an option, I've phrased it similarly to mkulta's first suggestion. Thanks!

By: polyglot

polyglot — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:11:05 -0800

It is the players' stadium; implying that the players are plural and they collectively own a stadium. At least, that's correct in Australia and therefore probably the UK.