How?

[Emily]

I just wondered how one writes the plural of 'no' - ie 'yesses and ?'

And this is correct, isn't it - ifs and buts ?

tia

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On Mon, 16 Jun 2003 11:04:34 GMT, Emily wrote

> I just wondered how one writes the plural of 'no' - ie 'yesses and ?'

I've only ever seen it spelled "noes".

> And this is correct, isn't it - ifs and buts ?

Yes, that's correct. (It's usually found in the phrase "no ifs, ands
or buts".)

--
Cheers,
Harvey

For e-mail, change harvey to whhvs.

[nwid...@ukonline.co.uk]

Always 'noes' (like goes, cargoes). And I'd prefer 'yeses', rather than
'yesses'. Noun plurals never double (buses, biases), compared to verbs,
which sometimes do (biases or biasses). Though I see Chambers lists yesses,
yeses, and yes's.

Ayes and noes, ifs and buts are established expressions. If you want to make
an ad hoc plural of a more unusual candidate you can use an apostrophe:
thus's, e.g.'s. This is not the dreaded greengrocer's apostrophe, but a
long-standing convention, sort of like pluralizing a form you'd put in
single quotes: one 'thus', two thus's.