Comments on: St Thomas’ Hospital or St Thomas’s Hospital?

By: Dave McCourt

Dave McCourt — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:14:29 +0000

Interesting post. It made me get my Judith Butcher out (The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, etc, 3rd edition). She refers to Hart’s Rules (39th edition) which:

…recommend[s] that in English names ‘s should be used in all monosyllables and disyllables, in longer words where it sounds right; however, the s is usually omitted when the last syllable is pronounced iz: Bridges’, Moses’, but James’s, Thomas’s.

By: Clare Lynch

Clare Lynch — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:45:36 +0000

Thanks for popping by, Robert. Interesting that there are two varieties for "St James". The rule of thumb that I was taught was to write it as you pronounce it, but clearly that doesn't work here - unless Novacastrians pronounce it differently to Londoners? Horrifically, there are moves to drop the apostrophe altogether from place names in order to avoid the confusion. See this post.

By: Pez

Pez — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:28:04 +0000

I know I’m late to the party here, but I saw this linked from the latest blog post, and I wanted to ask…

What about place names? I know that St James’s Park in London takes the ‘s, but St James’ Park in Newcastle doesn’t. Couldn’t St Thomas’(s) be similar to the Newcastle United stadium in this respect?

Love the blog, by the way. It’s like someone took the language rants out of my head and put them on screen.

By: Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:33:19 +0000

Hi Clare, I’ve given you the Premio Dardos Award. Check my blog for details!

By: Elaine

Elaine — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:51:35 +0000

Why don’t you just say Thomases!

Or. To my Asses

By: Clare Lynch

Clare Lynch — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:13:27 +0000

Ha, ha – yes, that irony was not lost on me!

By: katypea

katypea — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:45:06 +0000

Your sentence could then have been quickly followed by: Huw Jenkins’ departure from UBS’s investment banking division was announced the next week…

By: katypea

katypea — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:40:23 +0000

I’m mortified. I consider myself severely (and deservedly) spanked for that little oversight.

By: Clare Lynch

Clare Lynch — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:44:13 +0000

Wanton undeserved abuse sounds rather ungentlemanly for a real gent.

By: real gent

real gent — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:39:38 +0000

so it’s not so much a question of if the apostophe is to be deployed. it is a question of how. personally i’m all for wanton’ undeserved apostrophical abuse.