Narrative: need exception for countries that are treated as singular but plural for possessive form

[tmfrnz]

Related to the odd grammar of the USA.

It is usually treated as a singular ("The United States scores") but its possessive respects the plural "s" ("The United States' Empowerment score is"). Eg see https://grammarist.com/usage/united-states/

However the app currently decides the possessive based on the "is_plural" grammar attribute (false for USA) resulting in the incorrect "The United States's Empowerment score". Unless we can simply check for a country name ending with an "s" to determine the correct possessive form, we would need to add a column to the countries grammar file (eg "is_plural_possessive") for this specific case.

[tmfrnz]

To determine the need for the possessive 's' I think we should actually better check if the country name is ending with an 's' already and not if it is a plural See eg https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/punctuation/apostrophe-rules.html

[tmfrnz]

Having had another look here (https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/apostrophe.html) and here (https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/style.html) it appears that it depends on the chosen style:

Complicated: 'Chicago Manual of Style'

1. singular country names not ending with 's' would require the possessive 's' (eg New Zealand's score)
2. singular country names ending with 's' would require the additional possessive 's' (eg Belarus's score)
3. singular country names including a plural form ending with 's' would not have the additional possessive 's' (eg United States' score)
4. plural country names ending with 's' would not have the possessive 's' (eg Channel Islands' score)
5. plural country names not ending with 's' would have the possessive 's' (eg Trinidad and Tobago's score)

Simple: 'Associated Press Stylebook'

1. singular country names not ending with 's' would require the possessive 's' (eg New Zealand's score)
2. singular country names ending with 's' would not have the additional possessive 's' (eg Belarus' score)
3. singular country names including a plural form ending with 's' would not have the additional possessive 's', effectively the same as rule 2 (eg United States' score)
4. plural country names ending with 's' would not have the possessive 's', effectively the same as rule 2 (eg Channel Islands' score)
5. plural country names not ending with 's' would have the possessive 's', effectively the same as rule 1 (eg Trinidad and Tobago's score)

Which can be simplified to

1. country names not ending with 's' would require the possessive 's' (eg New Zealand's score or Trinidad and Tobago's score)
2. country names ending with 's' would not have the additional possessive 's' (eg Belarus' score, or Channel Islands' score or United States' score)

So the former would require checking word ending AND plural form AND include exceptions (rule 3), the latter would only require checking the word ending...

Therefore I would suggest to go with the simpler one - @sarahbichan please advise

[sarahbichan]

I agree with your summation, Timo. This makes sense to me and also looks tidier.

1. country names not ending with 's' would require the possessive 's' (eg New Zealand's score or Trinidad and Tobago's score)
2. country names ending with 's' would not have the additional possessive 's' (eg Belarus' score, or Channel Islands' score or United States' score)

Thanks.

[tmfrnz]

related to #105

[tmfrnz]

@annemariebrook could you confirm the suggested "simple" grammar rule (AP style)? thanks

[annemariebrook]

Yes agreed - this makes a lot of sense! thanks @tmfrnz and @sarahbichan