Possessive

How do you pronounce the possessive of names which end in /s/?,
e.g Ross's, Jess's, eytc.

Imagine that the apostrophe represents a short "e" (as in "ever" and "egg").

Ross's = Ross[e]s
Jess's = Jess[e]s
Louis's = Louis[e]s

Etc, etc, etc. This may or may not be the correct method to do so, but it works for me.

I thought that the possessive of names which end in "s" don't need an apostrophe, like for example James' and not James's. Is that right?

Strictly speaking, there should be only an apostrophe, and not an additional 's', and there should be no change in pronunciation. However, this rule is widely ignored today, probably because it's handy to have an audible indication of the possessive case, even if it's awkward to pronounce.

OK, thanks.

Isn't it pronounce

Ross's Ro:siz?

I think they all end in apostrophe S.

So "James" would become "James's".

That's what I was taught.

I believe James's or James' are considered acceptable.

I'd spell it "Ross' cat" and pronounce it /ros..sk@t/.

why then is it sometime written like this:

eg. the students' flat. the teachers' room.

Because it's the flat/room of more than one student/teacher. The rules for writing the possessive are the same whether the "s" is there as a pluralising suffix or not.

Dan,

It's not about words ending in the phoneme /s/. It's a question of which letter it ends with. "Ounce" ends with /s/ but you'd write "The ounce's volume depends on what standard you're using." "Dogs" ends with /z/ but you'd write "The dogs' barks are worse than their bites."

I was taught to write "James' (something)" and according to that, "James's" would be incorrect.

Then it's just a matter of convention. According to Strunk and White it would be apostrophe s regardless of the final letter (http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk.html#1).

Streets / squares in the UK:

St James's Square, Edinburgh
St James's Palace, London
St Giles Street, Edinburgh
St Giles High Street, London

St Silas' Place, Edinburgh in most maps. But the street signs simply say St Silas Place.

I'm not sure why Silas is different. It just seems more natural to say St James's than it is to say St Silas's for some reason.

Mjd is correct...you can say "this is James's book" or "this is James' book".

Different publishers use their own standard version of these possessive forms in the case of names ending in "s".

In general , just add an apostrophe at the end of plural words ending in "s": These are the ladies' rooms.