Some people will tell you that it’s fine to say “a friend of John” and that it’s also fine to say “John’s friend,” but “a friend of John’s” is another matter. “The double possessive is redundant and ...

Last week in this column we talked about some difficult possessives. This week, Bill in Williamsport, Pa., builds on that discussion with a question about a possessive issue we didn’t cover: “Joe is a ...

It could go down in history as the Arkansas Apostrophe Act of 2007. Or maybe “Arkansas’s Apostrophe Act of 2007.” Last month, the Arkansas State Legislature passed a non-binding resolution declaring ...

A reader asks: How do we write the possessive form of names that end in s – for example, Davis's or Davis'? This is not only a long-standing area of disagreement and inconsistency among writing guides ...

Mark Twain’s encounter with a particular foreign tongue inspired an essay called “The Awful German Language.” Welcome to a new feature of this column. We won’t call it “The Awful English Language.” ...

Complicated Land Grab Rules Are a Windfall for Michigan Governments This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—October 16 Supreme Manipulation This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—October 15 Audio By ...