Policy on Pokemon names that end in "s"

Oglemi

Borf
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OK, so I've been doing a few GP checks where the Pokemon's name ends in "s" and I really want to get this out there so that it's clarified for everybody. You are free to debate on how we will be doing this. This is not me saying "This is how we're doing it." Because I very well could be wrong.

When a Pokemon's name ends in "s", such as Ninetales, and you are giving it possession of something, you have to think about whether you're talking about every Ninetales out there, or this Ninetales in particular.

I was always taught that you only use just an apostrophe when it's plural possessive, as in multiple Ninetales'. If it's singular possessive, it ends in apostrophe + s, as in Ninetales's, or Metagross's for another example.

Here are a couple of examples from the analysis that was just uploaded:

This movepool, combined with Ninetales's decent bulk and Special Attack,

This is Ninetales' flagship set, which allows it to act

For which attack to use, Fire Blast is Ninetales's main STAB attack,
OK, as you can see there's some inconsistency. The first sentence suggests that we're talking about one Ninetales and that it has a good movepool, bulk, and Special Attack. But then later it turns to, this is every Ninetales' flagship set, instead of this is Ninetales's flagship set.

So, how should we be approaching this? I just want there to be a standard clarified so I'm not so confused, along with everybody else.

Thanks for your time.

EDIT: This could probably be moved to 5th Gen too.
 
Standardize it as s'. It's how it is in both my Ninetales and Gorebyss analyses.

Also, iirc, there's already a section in the Grammar refrence about this.

And I fixed all of that in the actual analysis. >_>
 

Oglemi

Borf
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Actually when I uploaded it, there was a one or two, the Fire Blast sentence for sure, that had it as Ninetales's. Hence why I'm frustrated.

Plus, I've been looking at the Arceus threads, and there's inconsistency there too.
 
^Most of that is Xia's writing, not mine. However, it was my analysis to look after, so I do take responsibility for missing it.

And either is correct, but it does need to be standardized.
 

Fatecrashers

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Unless specifically stated, I always assume it's singular, and therefore would add an apostrophe and an 's' onto the end
Tacking on just an apostrophe should only happen when it's specifically stated as plural imo
 

Flora

Yep, that tasted purple!
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I prefer singular with " 's " on these Pokemon. I don't know, it just kinda annoys me when I see " ' " by itself; it's like leaving something hanging. I didn't change it with Ninetales though since Eon already made it (almost) consistent and I didn't want to change it back.

I guess we can use the plural version when we say something like "Weedle can switch into every Gyarados' attacks easily..." (though I honestly wouldn't be using "every" in the first place).
 

Eo Ut Mortus

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Always append 's to a noun when signifying a singular possessive (Latias's Soul Dew) or plural possessive that doesn't end in s (Lucario's Swords Dance), and simply a ' when signifying a plural possessive for a word that ends in s (All Latios' Draco Meteor).
http://www.smogon.com/articles/grammar_standards

The problem is people have no idea how to access this article - including myself (I was only able to locate it because I had memorized the URL).
 
The grammar standards article segment on this as Eo quoted is correct.
Fatecrashers said:
Unless specifically stated, I always assume it's singular, and therefore would add an apostrophe and an 's' onto the end
Tacking on just an apostrophe should only happen when it's specifically stated as plural imo
This is how you should be approaching it. Unless it specifically states otherwise, assume that it is talking about one of the Pokemon.
 

jc104

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@ Eo - I seem to remember a ruling from just before GP started that you could do whichever you liked (obviously no-one edited the grammar standards page at the time). I am well aware of what it says and yet remember being instructed to ignore it.

There is no definitive rule for this in English grammar, and as such I see this discussion as more or less irrelevant. The only rule is that for the plural form you must not add an extra s.

edit - think about how you might read Latios's - it's really awkward
 

Oglemi

Borf
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But jc I could argue it's just as awkward to say Latios' Dragon Pulse without the s, because it's in our language to add an s when saying something possessive. I also don't like the policy of "it's a rule but don't follow it."

Also, I wasn't aware that this was in the grammar_standards page, so thanks for showing that. Eo also made a good point of that it's impossible to get to the page without memorizing the url.
 

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