My friend, Adam's birthday or My friend's, Adam's birthday [duplicate]





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  • Appositives with possessiveness?

    1 answer




Which one is correct?





  1. It is my friend's, Adam's birthday.

  2. It is my friend, Adam's birthday.




Does the word 'friend' need an apostrophe to show possession?










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marked as duplicate by curiousdannii, Janus Bahs Jacquet, Peter Shor , choster, Andrew Leach 2 days ago


This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.



















  • "It's my friend Adam's birthday." (Though "It's the birthday of my friend Adam" would be more idiomatic.)

    – Hot Licks
    2 days ago


















1
















This question already has an answer here:




  • Appositives with possessiveness?

    1 answer




Which one is correct?





  1. It is my friend's, Adam's birthday.

  2. It is my friend, Adam's birthday.




Does the word 'friend' need an apostrophe to show possession?










share|improve this question









New contributor




Mikey is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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marked as duplicate by curiousdannii, Janus Bahs Jacquet, Peter Shor , choster, Andrew Leach 2 days ago


This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.



















  • "It's my friend Adam's birthday." (Though "It's the birthday of my friend Adam" would be more idiomatic.)

    – Hot Licks
    2 days ago














1












1








1









This question already has an answer here:




  • Appositives with possessiveness?

    1 answer




Which one is correct?





  1. It is my friend's, Adam's birthday.

  2. It is my friend, Adam's birthday.




Does the word 'friend' need an apostrophe to show possession?










share|improve this question









New contributor




Mikey is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.













This question already has an answer here:




  • Appositives with possessiveness?

    1 answer




Which one is correct?





  1. It is my friend's, Adam's birthday.

  2. It is my friend, Adam's birthday.




Does the word 'friend' need an apostrophe to show possession?





This question already has an answer here:




  • Appositives with possessiveness?

    1 answer








possessives apostrophe






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edited 2 days ago







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asked 2 days ago









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marked as duplicate by curiousdannii, Janus Bahs Jacquet, Peter Shor , choster, Andrew Leach 2 days ago


This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.









marked as duplicate by curiousdannii, Janus Bahs Jacquet, Peter Shor , choster, Andrew Leach 2 days ago


This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.















  • "It's my friend Adam's birthday." (Though "It's the birthday of my friend Adam" would be more idiomatic.)

    – Hot Licks
    2 days ago



















  • "It's my friend Adam's birthday." (Though "It's the birthday of my friend Adam" would be more idiomatic.)

    – Hot Licks
    2 days ago

















"It's my friend Adam's birthday." (Though "It's the birthday of my friend Adam" would be more idiomatic.)

– Hot Licks
2 days ago





"It's my friend Adam's birthday." (Though "It's the birthday of my friend Adam" would be more idiomatic.)

– Hot Licks
2 days ago










4 Answers
4






active

oldest

votes


















0














If using the nonrestrictive (as discussed in another answer), I would simply rephrase the sentence to avoid the possessive:




It's the birthday of my friend, Adam.




With this, there is no awkward question about where to put the possessive apostrophe. (Because it will look strange no matter where you put it.)






share|improve this answer































    4














    Your question is actually a perfect storm in which rules of puntuation dictated by grammar clash with the deeper grammar of spoken English, though rarely with the noun in your example.



    Unless you are in the unfortunate situation of having only one single solitary friend in the world, in your example the proper name Adam is a restrictive appositive, that is, one necessary to restrict the meaning to one particular friend: your friend Monica as opposed to your friend Chandler. Restrictive appositives are never bracketed by commas, yielding:




    my friend Adam’s birthday




    A nonrestrictive appositive is absolutely identical to the noun to which it stands in apposition and thus requires bracketing commas:




    His wife, Eleanor, is head of pediatrics.




    Barring bigamy or polygamy, this guy has only one wife, so Eleanor and wife are specified to the same person. No one needs to ask which wife. Thus the commas.



    It only gets weird if he wants to talk about his wife’s birthday and wants to include her name.



    According to one source, to form the possessive of a noun and its appositive in written English, you treat the whole construction as a single noun phrase, making only the appositive possessive and omitting the second bracketing comma:




    We need Mr. Smith, the family attorney’s signature.




    Somewhere behind this sentence is a maniacal grammarian screaming about commas around nonrestrictive appositives but not knowing what to do with the second one.



    With proper names, however, this construction can yield bizarre results:




    I have to feed my brother, John’s dog.

    She wrecked her best friend, Petra’s Volvo.




    Now the comma is for the eye only — if proper names are nonrestrictive appositives, the commas are never marked by pauses. If someone says “my wife Rachel’s car,” it doesn’t mean there’s another wife Leah somewhere.



    In these cases, I would simply omit the commas entirely, following the prosody of the spoken language rather than a punctuation rule that could misdirect a reader to suppose a canine sibling or a best friend who’s secretly a Swedish automobile.






    share|improve this answer


























    • My friend, Adam is perfectly fine if previous context has already narrowed down the context to a single friend — "I have a friend that happened to. My friend, Adam, ..."

      – Peter Shor
      2 days ago













    • Then it's nonrestrictive, but without that context, it isn’t.

      – KarlG
      2 days ago











    • If using the nonrestrictive, I would simply rephrase the sentence to avoid the awkward looking possessive: It's the birthday of my friend, Adam.

      – Jason Bassford
      2 days ago



















    1














    Me? I go without any commas




    It's my friend Adam's birthday




    If I placed Adam in parenthesis, I'd write




    It's my friend's (Adam) birthday.







    share|improve this answer
























    • If you want the written language to correspond to the spoken language, you would have to use my friend (Adam)'s birthday. I think that works ... 's can be put on the end of any phrase (e.g. the horse in the far left stall's saddle), so why not after a phrase that includes parentheses?

      – Peter Shor
      2 days ago





















    0














    Ignoring the apostrophes for the moment you either need to lose the comma before Adam or add another comma after it.






    share|improve this answer








    New contributor




    Showsni is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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      4 Answers
      4






      active

      oldest

      votes








      4 Answers
      4






      active

      oldest

      votes









      active

      oldest

      votes






      active

      oldest

      votes









      0














      If using the nonrestrictive (as discussed in another answer), I would simply rephrase the sentence to avoid the possessive:




      It's the birthday of my friend, Adam.




      With this, there is no awkward question about where to put the possessive apostrophe. (Because it will look strange no matter where you put it.)






      share|improve this answer




























        0














        If using the nonrestrictive (as discussed in another answer), I would simply rephrase the sentence to avoid the possessive:




        It's the birthday of my friend, Adam.




        With this, there is no awkward question about where to put the possessive apostrophe. (Because it will look strange no matter where you put it.)






        share|improve this answer


























          0












          0








          0







          If using the nonrestrictive (as discussed in another answer), I would simply rephrase the sentence to avoid the possessive:




          It's the birthday of my friend, Adam.




          With this, there is no awkward question about where to put the possessive apostrophe. (Because it will look strange no matter where you put it.)






          share|improve this answer













          If using the nonrestrictive (as discussed in another answer), I would simply rephrase the sentence to avoid the possessive:




          It's the birthday of my friend, Adam.




          With this, there is no awkward question about where to put the possessive apostrophe. (Because it will look strange no matter where you put it.)







          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered 2 days ago









          Jason BassfordJason Bassford

          19.5k32346




          19.5k32346

























              4














              Your question is actually a perfect storm in which rules of puntuation dictated by grammar clash with the deeper grammar of spoken English, though rarely with the noun in your example.



              Unless you are in the unfortunate situation of having only one single solitary friend in the world, in your example the proper name Adam is a restrictive appositive, that is, one necessary to restrict the meaning to one particular friend: your friend Monica as opposed to your friend Chandler. Restrictive appositives are never bracketed by commas, yielding:




              my friend Adam’s birthday




              A nonrestrictive appositive is absolutely identical to the noun to which it stands in apposition and thus requires bracketing commas:




              His wife, Eleanor, is head of pediatrics.




              Barring bigamy or polygamy, this guy has only one wife, so Eleanor and wife are specified to the same person. No one needs to ask which wife. Thus the commas.



              It only gets weird if he wants to talk about his wife’s birthday and wants to include her name.



              According to one source, to form the possessive of a noun and its appositive in written English, you treat the whole construction as a single noun phrase, making only the appositive possessive and omitting the second bracketing comma:




              We need Mr. Smith, the family attorney’s signature.




              Somewhere behind this sentence is a maniacal grammarian screaming about commas around nonrestrictive appositives but not knowing what to do with the second one.



              With proper names, however, this construction can yield bizarre results:




              I have to feed my brother, John’s dog.

              She wrecked her best friend, Petra’s Volvo.




              Now the comma is for the eye only — if proper names are nonrestrictive appositives, the commas are never marked by pauses. If someone says “my wife Rachel’s car,” it doesn’t mean there’s another wife Leah somewhere.



              In these cases, I would simply omit the commas entirely, following the prosody of the spoken language rather than a punctuation rule that could misdirect a reader to suppose a canine sibling or a best friend who’s secretly a Swedish automobile.






              share|improve this answer


























              • My friend, Adam is perfectly fine if previous context has already narrowed down the context to a single friend — "I have a friend that happened to. My friend, Adam, ..."

                – Peter Shor
                2 days ago













              • Then it's nonrestrictive, but without that context, it isn’t.

                – KarlG
                2 days ago











              • If using the nonrestrictive, I would simply rephrase the sentence to avoid the awkward looking possessive: It's the birthday of my friend, Adam.

                – Jason Bassford
                2 days ago
















              4














              Your question is actually a perfect storm in which rules of puntuation dictated by grammar clash with the deeper grammar of spoken English, though rarely with the noun in your example.



              Unless you are in the unfortunate situation of having only one single solitary friend in the world, in your example the proper name Adam is a restrictive appositive, that is, one necessary to restrict the meaning to one particular friend: your friend Monica as opposed to your friend Chandler. Restrictive appositives are never bracketed by commas, yielding:




              my friend Adam’s birthday




              A nonrestrictive appositive is absolutely identical to the noun to which it stands in apposition and thus requires bracketing commas:




              His wife, Eleanor, is head of pediatrics.




              Barring bigamy or polygamy, this guy has only one wife, so Eleanor and wife are specified to the same person. No one needs to ask which wife. Thus the commas.



              It only gets weird if he wants to talk about his wife’s birthday and wants to include her name.



              According to one source, to form the possessive of a noun and its appositive in written English, you treat the whole construction as a single noun phrase, making only the appositive possessive and omitting the second bracketing comma:




              We need Mr. Smith, the family attorney’s signature.




              Somewhere behind this sentence is a maniacal grammarian screaming about commas around nonrestrictive appositives but not knowing what to do with the second one.



              With proper names, however, this construction can yield bizarre results:




              I have to feed my brother, John’s dog.

              She wrecked her best friend, Petra’s Volvo.




              Now the comma is for the eye only — if proper names are nonrestrictive appositives, the commas are never marked by pauses. If someone says “my wife Rachel’s car,” it doesn’t mean there’s another wife Leah somewhere.



              In these cases, I would simply omit the commas entirely, following the prosody of the spoken language rather than a punctuation rule that could misdirect a reader to suppose a canine sibling or a best friend who’s secretly a Swedish automobile.






              share|improve this answer


























              • My friend, Adam is perfectly fine if previous context has already narrowed down the context to a single friend — "I have a friend that happened to. My friend, Adam, ..."

                – Peter Shor
                2 days ago













              • Then it's nonrestrictive, but without that context, it isn’t.

                – KarlG
                2 days ago











              • If using the nonrestrictive, I would simply rephrase the sentence to avoid the awkward looking possessive: It's the birthday of my friend, Adam.

                – Jason Bassford
                2 days ago














              4












              4








              4







              Your question is actually a perfect storm in which rules of puntuation dictated by grammar clash with the deeper grammar of spoken English, though rarely with the noun in your example.



              Unless you are in the unfortunate situation of having only one single solitary friend in the world, in your example the proper name Adam is a restrictive appositive, that is, one necessary to restrict the meaning to one particular friend: your friend Monica as opposed to your friend Chandler. Restrictive appositives are never bracketed by commas, yielding:




              my friend Adam’s birthday




              A nonrestrictive appositive is absolutely identical to the noun to which it stands in apposition and thus requires bracketing commas:




              His wife, Eleanor, is head of pediatrics.




              Barring bigamy or polygamy, this guy has only one wife, so Eleanor and wife are specified to the same person. No one needs to ask which wife. Thus the commas.



              It only gets weird if he wants to talk about his wife’s birthday and wants to include her name.



              According to one source, to form the possessive of a noun and its appositive in written English, you treat the whole construction as a single noun phrase, making only the appositive possessive and omitting the second bracketing comma:




              We need Mr. Smith, the family attorney’s signature.




              Somewhere behind this sentence is a maniacal grammarian screaming about commas around nonrestrictive appositives but not knowing what to do with the second one.



              With proper names, however, this construction can yield bizarre results:




              I have to feed my brother, John’s dog.

              She wrecked her best friend, Petra’s Volvo.




              Now the comma is for the eye only — if proper names are nonrestrictive appositives, the commas are never marked by pauses. If someone says “my wife Rachel’s car,” it doesn’t mean there’s another wife Leah somewhere.



              In these cases, I would simply omit the commas entirely, following the prosody of the spoken language rather than a punctuation rule that could misdirect a reader to suppose a canine sibling or a best friend who’s secretly a Swedish automobile.






              share|improve this answer















              Your question is actually a perfect storm in which rules of puntuation dictated by grammar clash with the deeper grammar of spoken English, though rarely with the noun in your example.



              Unless you are in the unfortunate situation of having only one single solitary friend in the world, in your example the proper name Adam is a restrictive appositive, that is, one necessary to restrict the meaning to one particular friend: your friend Monica as opposed to your friend Chandler. Restrictive appositives are never bracketed by commas, yielding:




              my friend Adam’s birthday




              A nonrestrictive appositive is absolutely identical to the noun to which it stands in apposition and thus requires bracketing commas:




              His wife, Eleanor, is head of pediatrics.




              Barring bigamy or polygamy, this guy has only one wife, so Eleanor and wife are specified to the same person. No one needs to ask which wife. Thus the commas.



              It only gets weird if he wants to talk about his wife’s birthday and wants to include her name.



              According to one source, to form the possessive of a noun and its appositive in written English, you treat the whole construction as a single noun phrase, making only the appositive possessive and omitting the second bracketing comma:




              We need Mr. Smith, the family attorney’s signature.




              Somewhere behind this sentence is a maniacal grammarian screaming about commas around nonrestrictive appositives but not knowing what to do with the second one.



              With proper names, however, this construction can yield bizarre results:




              I have to feed my brother, John’s dog.

              She wrecked her best friend, Petra’s Volvo.




              Now the comma is for the eye only — if proper names are nonrestrictive appositives, the commas are never marked by pauses. If someone says “my wife Rachel’s car,” it doesn’t mean there’s another wife Leah somewhere.



              In these cases, I would simply omit the commas entirely, following the prosody of the spoken language rather than a punctuation rule that could misdirect a reader to suppose a canine sibling or a best friend who’s secretly a Swedish automobile.







              share|improve this answer














              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer








              edited 2 days ago

























              answered 2 days ago









              KarlGKarlG

              23k63262




              23k63262













              • My friend, Adam is perfectly fine if previous context has already narrowed down the context to a single friend — "I have a friend that happened to. My friend, Adam, ..."

                – Peter Shor
                2 days ago













              • Then it's nonrestrictive, but without that context, it isn’t.

                – KarlG
                2 days ago











              • If using the nonrestrictive, I would simply rephrase the sentence to avoid the awkward looking possessive: It's the birthday of my friend, Adam.

                – Jason Bassford
                2 days ago



















              • My friend, Adam is perfectly fine if previous context has already narrowed down the context to a single friend — "I have a friend that happened to. My friend, Adam, ..."

                – Peter Shor
                2 days ago













              • Then it's nonrestrictive, but without that context, it isn’t.

                – KarlG
                2 days ago











              • If using the nonrestrictive, I would simply rephrase the sentence to avoid the awkward looking possessive: It's the birthday of my friend, Adam.

                – Jason Bassford
                2 days ago

















              My friend, Adam is perfectly fine if previous context has already narrowed down the context to a single friend — "I have a friend that happened to. My friend, Adam, ..."

              – Peter Shor
              2 days ago







              My friend, Adam is perfectly fine if previous context has already narrowed down the context to a single friend — "I have a friend that happened to. My friend, Adam, ..."

              – Peter Shor
              2 days ago















              Then it's nonrestrictive, but without that context, it isn’t.

              – KarlG
              2 days ago





              Then it's nonrestrictive, but without that context, it isn’t.

              – KarlG
              2 days ago













              If using the nonrestrictive, I would simply rephrase the sentence to avoid the awkward looking possessive: It's the birthday of my friend, Adam.

              – Jason Bassford
              2 days ago





              If using the nonrestrictive, I would simply rephrase the sentence to avoid the awkward looking possessive: It's the birthday of my friend, Adam.

              – Jason Bassford
              2 days ago











              1














              Me? I go without any commas




              It's my friend Adam's birthday




              If I placed Adam in parenthesis, I'd write




              It's my friend's (Adam) birthday.







              share|improve this answer
























              • If you want the written language to correspond to the spoken language, you would have to use my friend (Adam)'s birthday. I think that works ... 's can be put on the end of any phrase (e.g. the horse in the far left stall's saddle), so why not after a phrase that includes parentheses?

                – Peter Shor
                2 days ago


















              1














              Me? I go without any commas




              It's my friend Adam's birthday




              If I placed Adam in parenthesis, I'd write




              It's my friend's (Adam) birthday.







              share|improve this answer
























              • If you want the written language to correspond to the spoken language, you would have to use my friend (Adam)'s birthday. I think that works ... 's can be put on the end of any phrase (e.g. the horse in the far left stall's saddle), so why not after a phrase that includes parentheses?

                – Peter Shor
                2 days ago
















              1












              1








              1







              Me? I go without any commas




              It's my friend Adam's birthday




              If I placed Adam in parenthesis, I'd write




              It's my friend's (Adam) birthday.







              share|improve this answer













              Me? I go without any commas




              It's my friend Adam's birthday




              If I placed Adam in parenthesis, I'd write




              It's my friend's (Adam) birthday.








              share|improve this answer












              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer










              answered 2 days ago









              Mari-Lou AMari-Lou A

              62.6k57224464




              62.6k57224464













              • If you want the written language to correspond to the spoken language, you would have to use my friend (Adam)'s birthday. I think that works ... 's can be put on the end of any phrase (e.g. the horse in the far left stall's saddle), so why not after a phrase that includes parentheses?

                – Peter Shor
                2 days ago





















              • If you want the written language to correspond to the spoken language, you would have to use my friend (Adam)'s birthday. I think that works ... 's can be put on the end of any phrase (e.g. the horse in the far left stall's saddle), so why not after a phrase that includes parentheses?

                – Peter Shor
                2 days ago



















              If you want the written language to correspond to the spoken language, you would have to use my friend (Adam)'s birthday. I think that works ... 's can be put on the end of any phrase (e.g. the horse in the far left stall's saddle), so why not after a phrase that includes parentheses?

              – Peter Shor
              2 days ago







              If you want the written language to correspond to the spoken language, you would have to use my friend (Adam)'s birthday. I think that works ... 's can be put on the end of any phrase (e.g. the horse in the far left stall's saddle), so why not after a phrase that includes parentheses?

              – Peter Shor
              2 days ago













              0














              Ignoring the apostrophes for the moment you either need to lose the comma before Adam or add another comma after it.






              share|improve this answer








              New contributor




              Showsni is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
              Check out our Code of Conduct.

























                0














                Ignoring the apostrophes for the moment you either need to lose the comma before Adam or add another comma after it.






                share|improve this answer








                New contributor




                Showsni is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                Check out our Code of Conduct.























                  0












                  0








                  0







                  Ignoring the apostrophes for the moment you either need to lose the comma before Adam or add another comma after it.






                  share|improve this answer








                  New contributor




                  Showsni is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                  Check out our Code of Conduct.










                  Ignoring the apostrophes for the moment you either need to lose the comma before Adam or add another comma after it.







                  share|improve this answer








                  New contributor




                  Showsni is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer






                  New contributor




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                  answered 2 days ago









                  ShowsniShowsni

                  361




                  361




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                  New contributor





                  Showsni is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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