Answer: apostrophe in "children's book"
rotaryphones wants to know: Where does the apostrophe go in "children's book"?
This is covered obliquely in the Possessives and Sibilants post, but it's worth addressing directly for greater clarity.
The normal rule when forming a plural noun is to add an s to the end. The normal rule when forming a possessive with a noun is to add an apostrophe and s. The normal rule when forming a possessive with a plural noun is to place the apostrophe after the plural s and skip the possessive s; this avoids a messy s's ending.
"Hey, Frannie," Ray shouted across the bull pen, "some kid's mom is on the phone here."
"Well, which one of these kids is she looking for?" she yelled back, exasperated by the chaos of eight 10-year-old witnesses zooming around the room.
"Uh ..." Ray checked back with the caller, then looked up. "Probably that one." He pointed to the quiet one reading in the corner. "She said he'd have his nose buried in some kids' book." [not kids's]
Possessive apostrophes go at the end of plurals-easy!
Except ...
Not all plurals end in s. The plural of child is children. And because there's no messy plural s to worry about, you can add on the apostrophe and s to form the possessive as you would normally.
Fraser glanced across the room as well. "Oh, Through the Looking Glass-quite a classic children's book."
So rotaryphones has it right in the question! Check your noun without the possessive. Is it plural already? Then form the possessive with the apostrophe and s.
Conveniently, the plurals for woman and man are similar, which makes it easy to keep all the constructions parallel:
Fraser and Ray gave chase as they saw their quarry duck into a department store. By the time they got there, though, they weren't sure whether their pickpocket was in the men's, women's, or children's clothing department.
This is covered obliquely in the Possessives and Sibilants post, but it's worth addressing directly for greater clarity.
The normal rule when forming a plural noun is to add an s to the end. The normal rule when forming a possessive with a noun is to add an apostrophe and s. The normal rule when forming a possessive with a plural noun is to place the apostrophe after the plural s and skip the possessive s; this avoids a messy s's ending.
"Hey, Frannie," Ray shouted across the bull pen, "some kid's mom is on the phone here."
"Well, which one of these kids is she looking for?" she yelled back, exasperated by the chaos of eight 10-year-old witnesses zooming around the room.
"Uh ..." Ray checked back with the caller, then looked up. "Probably that one." He pointed to the quiet one reading in the corner. "She said he'd have his nose buried in some kids' book." [not kids's]
Possessive apostrophes go at the end of plurals-easy!
Except ...
Not all plurals end in s. The plural of child is children. And because there's no messy plural s to worry about, you can add on the apostrophe and s to form the possessive as you would normally.
Fraser glanced across the room as well. "Oh, Through the Looking Glass-quite a classic children's book."
So rotaryphones has it right in the question! Check your noun without the possessive. Is it plural already? Then form the possessive with the apostrophe and s.
Conveniently, the plurals for woman and man are similar, which makes it easy to keep all the constructions parallel:
Fraser and Ray gave chase as they saw their quarry duck into a department store. By the time they got there, though, they weren't sure whether their pickpocket was in the men's, women's, or children's clothing department.