Learn English – Are commas necessary before and/or after a possessive appositive

appositivescommaspossessives

Which is correct:

  1. It's my daughter's, Mary's, birthday.
  2. It's my daughter, Mary's, birthday.
  3. It's my daughter, Mary's birthday.
  4. It's my daughter Mary's birthday.

Best Answer

The first one because the name is an optional information so you need to mark it off and your sentence has to make sense without it, too, hence you need the possessive 's with the word daughter.

It's my daughter's, Mary's, birthday.
It's my daughter's birthday.

Although personally I'd use em dashes here to avoid having commas so close to apostrophes.

It's my daughter's—Mary's—birthday.

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