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.
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.
Yeah, that's kind of what I was getting at. I'd use Teacups-the-name as singular.
Note to self: possibly name child "Teacups."
Certainly in Bridget Jones' Diary they use s'.
Nuh-uh. At least in the version here in the US, it's "Jones's"
I suspect that s's is Us, and s' is British, then.
Note to self: possibly name child "Teacups."
And I'll call mine "Biscuits".
Hey, everyone. Just posting to share what my writing instructor called a "Kinko's moment". That is to say, that the only time you should feel completely satisfied with your work is dragging it home from the copy place. I feel like I rock right now. Of course, given my track record, that should last...a minute and a half. Thanks to everyone who gave advice.
Taking a moment...and we're done.
According to Little and Brown, if a name is a plural of a word (they use the example of Rivers), then it just gets the apostrophe, no additional s.
When I last asked the Buffistas, I was told that Jesus and Moses were special exceptions and that 's was mandatory everywhere else.
I often ignore that advice.
Just catching up on Susan's piece, the one thing that stuck in my mind, since I read it last night, is that you said the heroine was "racist".
Maybe it's just me, but that just sounds awful to me. You went on and softened it afterward, but hey, if she's racist, she's pretty much a bad person and I don't care if she gets hit by a truck, let alone finds True Love. I'd have been much happier reading something like "she's been brought up in a racist family" or "she has the racist attitudes typical of her upbringing" or something.
I'd have been much happier reading something like "she's been brought up in a racist family" or "she has the racist attitudes typical of her upbringing" or something.
Wouldn't she still be racist?
