Friday, January 27, 2017

grammatical number - What is the correct possessive form of "Drs. Smith"?




I want to address two Doctor Smiths via the abbreviation "Drs. Smith"; what is the correct possessive form of that (plural) noun phrase? Is it "Drs. Smith's"?



An example sentence:




Drs. Smith's house is in an ideal location.`



Answer



I'm going to make an educated guess, which isn't necessarily the best option but:




Technically, if you rewrite the phrase, you get:




The house belongs to the Drs. Smith.




Smith is singular, so the possessive form would be:





The Drs. Smith's house.




Similarly, if the sentence was:




The house belongs to Drs. Joe and Jane Smith.




The possessive would be:





Drs. Joe and Jane Smith's house.




Regardless, "Smith" is singular, so it doesn't make sense to pluralize it.



Now, contrast this with the known method for "The Smiths'":



The rewritten phrase would be:





The house belongs to the Smiths.




It's plural here... so it makes sense that the possessive would be:




The Smiths' house.




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