When referencing the Bush family, would I write "The Bushes are
blue-bloods," "The Bush's are blue-bloods," or "The Bushs are
blue-bloods"? An article I just read used the apostrophe and I don't
believe that is accurate. I believe the last option "The Bushs" is the
correct one, but it is tough to Google the concept of a collective
proper noun which happens to be the same as an irregular noun.
Does the rule of adding -es to make a noun ending in H plural apply to
the names of people? I don't believe it does, but I can't find
clarification one way or the other. I see so many Russian names like
Ivanovich or Petravich, and adding -es to them doesn't seem right. But
I don't know.
--
Kevin M. (RPCV)
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7.8 Plurals of proper nouns
Names of persons and other capitalized nouns normally form the plural by
adding s or es. Rare exceptions, including the last example, are generally
listed in Webster's.
Tom, Dick, and Harry; pl. Toms, Dicks, and Harrys
the Jones family, pl. the Joneses
the Martinez family, pl. the Martinezes
the Bruno family, pl. the Brunos
Sunday, pl. Sundays
Germany, pl. Germanys
Pakistani, pl. Pakistanis
but
Romany, pl. Romanies
An apostrophe is never used to form the plural of a family name: "The
Jeffersons live here" (not "Jefferson's"). For the apostrophe in the
possessive form of proper nouns, see 7.16.
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The correct usage would be "The Bushes are blue-bloods."
Doug Fields
Tampa, FL
--
Kevin M. (RPCV)
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> The correct usage would be "The Bushes are blue-bloods."
Here is where I again get nit-picky -- is this the same in the AP and
MLA style manuals? I only ask because I've seen more than a few
instances where the Chicago Manual of Style differed greatly from the
other primary manuals (its insistance on the double-s apostrophe, as
in James's, for example). None of my university professors would allow
the Chicago Manual to be used
--
Kevin M. (RPCV)
Doug Fields
Tampa, FL
-----Original Message-----
From: tvor...@googlegroups.com [mailto:tvor...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of Kevin M.
--
Kevin M. (RPCV)
--
By the way, the NYTimes manual also includes the double-s apostrophe.
So it's not just CMoS.
jd