Why do Jesus and Moses have honorary plurality, just because they're shiny?
Try saying Moses's or Jesus's. Your tongue gets stuck in a sort of Moseseseseses thing. It's because of the double s already at the end.
I've really got to learn to just do the damage and get out of town. It's the 'stay and gloat' that gets me every time.
Ethan Rayne ,'Potential'
The Great Write Way
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
Hil R. - Nov 18, 2002 9:41:05 am PST #330 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
P.M. Marc - Nov 18, 2002 9:42:08 am PST #331 of 10001
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
IIRC, AP style for single possessive proper nouns ending with s is 's.
I know it annoys me, and that it's something that's shifted since I started writing, because I know damned well that all my things had ---s' written on them. (I think a shift in rule that affects your name is more annoying than any other.)
Jesse - Nov 18, 2002 9:43:15 am PST #332 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
People at work use s' -- our ED's name ends with s -- and it irks me, because then it looks like his name is plural, if you know what I mean.
Rebecca Lizard - Nov 18, 2002 9:43:55 am PST #333 of 10001
You sip / say it's your crazy / straw say it's you're crazy / as you bicycle your soul / with beauty in your basket
Okay, so, it's not just an obscure religious act of honor. So any other English word with the same s-situation would have the same deal?
This is so fucking weird. I've never noticed I was off. Think of all the papers and stories I've written with the wrong things in! I want to march back to the nuns that taught me and complain.
P.M. Marc - Nov 18, 2002 9:44:48 am PST #334 of 10001
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
Technically, my name is plural, so I still s' any labels I may make.
Hil R. - Nov 18, 2002 9:47:09 am PST #335 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
So any other English word <tried to think of one, fails> with the same s-situation would have the same deal?
Yep. But I don't think there are any other English words with that pattern. At least, no terribly common ones.
erikaj - Nov 18, 2002 9:47:38 am PST #336 of 10001
"already on the kiss-cam with Karl Marx"-
I think I was always taught 's, but then I have spent a fair amount of time with AP Style, so it could be my thinking is muddy. So, from me it would be, say, Pleiades' Wesley fics.
Jesse - Nov 18, 2002 9:48:35 am PST #337 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
Ah, but I'd say it's not plural, when it's your name. (Now I have John Malkovich in my head going, "It's my head! ") I mean, unless you contain multitudes. Which is cool too.
Susan W. - Nov 18, 2002 9:50:46 am PST #338 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights
I know it annoys me, and that it's something that's shifted since I started writing, because I know damned well that all my things had ---s' written on them. (I think a shift in rule that affects your name is more annoying than any other.)
Huh. And here I thought I was the one being the dinosaur sticking to an oudated version of the rule, much as still I use the serial comma whenever I can get by with it. It just flows better and looks more symmetrical, dammit! Anyway, I learned the 's unless it's Moses or Jesus (or, presumably, Isis) from Strunk & White, and it's only recently I've noticed the s' usage.
P.M. Marc - Nov 18, 2002 10:06:03 am PST #339 of 10001
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
Ah, but I'd say it's not plural, when it's your name.
Well, it's a bit like being named Castles or Books or Teacups.
Where you aren't, but the name obviously is.