ion.

15. THE FOLLOWING ARE THE RULES FOR THE FORMING OF THE POSSESSIVE
CASE:

1. Most nouns form the possessive by adding the apostrophe and _s_
(_'s_); as, _man, man's; men, men's; pupil, pupil's; John, John's_.

2. Plural nouns ending in _s_ form the possessive by adding only
the apostrophe ('); as, _persons, persons'; writers, writers'_. In
stating possession in the plural, then one should say: _Carpenters'
tools sharpened here, Odd Fellows' wives are invited_, etc.

3. Some singular nouns ending in an _s_ sound form the possessive
by adding the apostrophe alone; as, _for appearance' sake, for
goodness' sake_. But usage inclines to the adding of the apostrophe
and _s_ (_'s_) even if the singular noun does end in an _s_ sound;
as, _Charles's book, Frances's dress, the mistress's dress_.

4. When a compound noun, or a group of words treated as one name,
is used to denote possession, the sign of the possessive is added
to the last word only; as, _Charles and John's mother_ (the mother
of both Charles and John), _Brown and Smith's store_ (the store
of the firm Brown & Smith).

5. Where the succession of possessives is unpleasant or confusing,
the substitution of a prepositional phrase should be made; as, _the
house of the mother of Charles's partner_, instead of, _Charles's
partner's mother's house_.

6. The sign of the possessive should be used with the word immediately
preceding the word naming the thing possessed; as, _Father and
mother's house, Smith, the lawyer's, office, The Senator from Utah's
seat_.

7. Generally, nouns representing inanimate objects should not be
used in the possessive case. It is better to say _the hands of
the clock_ than _the clock's hands_.

NOTE.--One should say _somebody else's_, not _somebody's else_.
The expression _somebody else_ always occurs in the one form, and
in such cases the sign of the possessive should be added to the
last word. Similarly, say, _no one else's, everybody else's_, etc.

EXERCISE 4

_Write the possessives of the following:_

Oxen, ox, brother-in-law, Miss Jones, goose, man, men, men-servants,
man-servant, Maine, dogs, attorneys-at-law, Jackson & Jones, John the
student, my friend John, coat, shoe, boy, boys, Mayor of Cleveland.

EXERCISE 5

_Write sentences illustrating the use of the possessives you have
formed for the first ten words under Exercise 4._

EXERCISE 6

_Change the following expressions from the prepositional phrase
form to th