Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [OM] A bit of a tease to start the week

Subject: Re: [OM] A bit of a tease to start the week
From: Bob Whitmire <bwhitmire@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:40:34 -0500
One of my grammatical heroes, the late columnist James J. Kilpatrick, who wrote 
prolifically and cogently on language usage, subscribed to the belief that one 
should use the s's when it _sounds_ correct, and the s' when s's doesn't sound 
correct. An example would be the former barbarian senator from North Carolina, 
Sen. Jesse Helms. He was always the subject of possessives. If you sound it 
out, you get Helmses, in which case you would use Helms's. It just sounds more 
natural. Our current topic, Kangaroos, on the other hand, would sound better 
with the s'. Kangarooses just doesn't sound right.

--Bob Whitmire
Certified Neanderthal

On Nov 19, 2013, at 5:56 PM, Chris Trask wrote:

> Would the possessive plural of 'roos be 'roos' or 'roos's?

-- 
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz