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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320 |
Angel,
I'm feeling challenged here, but I'd say add -es rather than -s to any word ending in s, z, or x. So I'd definitely say sixes. The rule, as I recall, is to use -es when the new formation (plural or third-person form) adds a syllable (miss/misses; buzz/buzzes; six/sixes). I'll be happy to stand corrected, if anyone disagrees.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
But do we believe ænigma?
Alway's.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
I'll be happy to stand corrected, if anyone disagrees.
Look's to me like your setting correctly, slithy.
PS LOL dxb!!
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
OK, Slithy's given us a source at least. This is what I believe the rule to cover based on what we've posted here today:
If you're writing the number as a word, the plural doesn't require an apostrophe;
According to Slithy's source the numeral will require an apostrophe (and possibly this means that 1800's might be perfectly acceptable according to
Slithy's source)
And individual letters of the alphabet should have apostrophes for plurals, again according to Slithy's source.
So p's and q's and crossing t's and dotting your i's all have apostrophes along with beats in sets of 2's and 3's...but not twos and threes and sixes...
How's that?
WW
PS: I just realized that I've repeated exactly what Slithy's already written, but I'm just throwing this all out again on page 2 so's to keep things straight in m'min'. What's the rule about the period going inside of quotation marks? That doesn't count on m'min', does it? I mean, it shouldn't be "m'min.'," should it?[/white}
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
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addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
WordWind....
bb...bb...bbbuttt.tt
Didn't you just say that?
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
...or threes in two. I love the word hemiola to describe this, thanks be to Peter Schickele. (I didn't know it before, or either I forgot it, one)
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
How do you pluralize more than one "S"?...esses? S's? s's?
Ss? ss?
Or maybe we should just let ol' Gollum take it.....
esssssssssssssssssssssssessssssssssssssssssssssssss
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Dear Whit,
Who's Gollum?
DubDub
PS: Angel, I have no idea how that second repetitive post made it onto the page, but I'll delete it. What's curious is the second repetitive post doesn't have the white part!
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
Gollum is the nassssty creature in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings who is in love with the precioussss, my precioussssss.
Strunk and White sez to pluralize an s word:
1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's. Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write,
Charles's friend
Burns's poems
the witch's malice
Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names ending in -es and -is, the possessive Jesus', and such forms as "for conscience' sake, for righteousness' sake."
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