Charles Davis Jan 8, 2014:

I agree with others that it would be better to avoid the possessive entirely. The possessive form maîtres d's' may be logically correct but it is extremely awkward, looks like an error, and will simply puzzle the reader. There is always a satisfactory way of rephrasing these things.

One more comment: the form maître d' is in any case primarily American. "Maître d'hôtel" is certainly correct, but a bit formal. Perhaps you could consider "head waiter"?

Charles Davis Jan 8, 2014:

The plural of maître d' is undoubtedly maître d's. It is a rare case in which a plural ending in apostrophe-s is correct. It may actually be unique; I don't know whether there are any other nouns in English that end with an apostrophe. This apostrophe signifies contraction, not possession; it is effectively a letter. There is no argument for removing it in forming the plural. Dictionaries and style manuals seem to be unanimous on this, and it is logically unassailable. The trouble is that it looks wrong, because plurals in apostrophe-s are quite commonly used and apart from this exceptional case they always are wrong.

Tony M Jan 8, 2014:

@ Asker There is no problem whatsoever using 'maître d'hôtel' in a restaurant context — no-one will be confused, it is a perfectly standard term; in fact, not many hotels would have a 'maître d'hôtel' unless they had a restaurant!

But as BDf has said, the best thing would be to re-phrase slightly to avoid needing the possessive at all; you don't unfortunately give us the full sentence, but I'm willing to bet that the use of the possessive here would actually sound awkward anyway. Please give us the full sentence so we can help you better.

ulvaferry (asker) Jan 8, 2014:

Apostrophe Tom in London confirms the apostrophe rule I remembered, but the indication of the plural of maitre d' as maitre d's is on several apprarently reliable Web sites...

writeaway Jan 8, 2014:

Check this out http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maître d'

Lara Barnett Jan 8, 2014:

@ ulvaferry I realise this, but I was interested in how the word fits into the structure of the sentence. This may affect choice of word.

writeaway Jan 8, 2014:

But since the question is about English spelling, I shifted this to English monolingual since maybe native English speakers can help. Otherwise suggest checking on Google.

ulvaferry (asker) Jan 8, 2014:

Maitre context The context is a description of the various skills a truly qualified maitre must have...

ulvaferry (asker) Jan 8, 2014:

I'm translating from Italian, where maitre is used on its own, which is why I posted as ITA->ENG The maitres in question work in both hotels and restaurants, so (to avoid confusing non-native speakers) I don't want to write the English maitre d'hotel in full...

writeaway Jan 8, 2014:

Shouldn't this be a question for English monolingual?

Lara Barnett Jan 8, 2014:

@ Ulvaferry Can you show the context please?