> I would also put in a rule to
> check if the company name already
> contains the ’ character. If a
> company's name in already entered in as
> McDonald's, you don't want it to
> say McDonald's'.
Yes, David's caveat is important. I would add that you should also
check for the presence of an existing regular, or "non-curly,"
apostrophe character (') in addition to an existing "curly" single quote
character (denoted by the "’" entity).
Also, grammatically speaking, it's not always correct to simply put an
apostrophe at the end of the possessive form of the base word, even if
the base word ends with an "s." As with all things grammatical, there
are multiple schools of thought, and there's not always one "right"
answer. However, under the more traditional, "formal" rules, the "s'"
ending is generally only appropriate if the base word is plural, and if
it's singular, it's actually correct to end with "s's". For example,
the possessive form of the plural "costumers" would be "costumers'", but
the possessive from of the singular "Chris" would be "Chris's", NOT
"Chris'". (Think about how you would pronounce this: it would be like
the general plural form "Chrises," with a distinct extra "s" syllable.)
This is yet another example of how the often-arcane rules of grammar,
especially in this strange language of English, cannot always be reduced
to precise logical algorithms. My advice, as always, is: Know thy data!
For reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe#Singulars
and
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_apost.html
and many other pages.
Dan
(Mr. Grammar Guy)
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