Is it Jess' or Jess's?

[Sevenyoung]

I've always thought it was Jess' because all the things i read go like that, but right now i just read an English language book saying it's Jess's. Im confused, which is right?

[Anonymous]

English has no governing body which establishes standards for the language. So it's up to you what manual of style you follow.

I was taught (in the USA) to just add an apostrophe. (It's Jess' possession.) This was the first Google search result for "possessive apostrophe ends in s":

http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/apostrophe.html

…and it agrees as well. That doesn't mean Jess's is necessarily wrong. If this is for school, ask your teacher or follow the textbook's example. If your teacher marks it wrong, you can always go back to the textbook in your defense.

[Alistayr]

I'm English, and good with grammer, and the correct way to write it is Jess's. If there were more than one Jess, then it would be Jesses'.

[_caaaaaaam]

No it isn't. The correct way is Jess' . The rule changes since there are multiple ss to avoid confusion

[Alistayr]

Really!

[witty-kitty]

Jess's bc its possession and its singular... for example "The dog's food" dog is singular so u add an apostrophe and an S to show possession. If it was plural (dogs) it would be "the dogs' food" with an apostrophe after the S at the end...
Names are singular so it's "Jess's" "Rachel's" "Michael's"

[Sevenyoung]

Ohhh i understand. But how come in some other book i read it was Jess'?

[witty-kitty]

Maybe they weren't aware too... what book was it? Maybe they got confused bc the name Jess ends with an S.. but they don't know that it doesn't depend on the last letter of the word, but on the plural or singular form...

[witty-kitty]

Ok i did some research and people really are confused about names ending in "S" so they vote "jess' and jess's" to be both correct according to the ear.
But using the grammar rules in my opinion it should be "jess's"

[Sevenyoung]

It was just some random book i think or a website but your grammar rules make sense... thanks!!!

[witty-kitty]

Welcome :D

[Queeeen]

Both are correct

[Rachel_is_gay]

Jess's