ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Plural surname

Grammar Geek — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:49:50 GMT

Why so people doubt this so much??

Re: Plural surname

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:33:48 GMT

What is the plural of the surname English? The Englishes ??

Re: Plural surname

Grammar Geek — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:50:42 GMT

Lucases

Re: Plural surname

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:15:44 GMT

What is the plural for the surname 'Lucas'?

Re: Plural surname

Grammar Geek — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:21:01 GMT

Like any other word that ends in ch, add "es."

Geryches.

Re: Plural surname

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:19:03 GMT

What would the plural of the surname Gerych be?

Re: Plural surname

Grammar Geek — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:46:03 GMT

Anonymous

Do you believe the same pattern is true for the surname Jacobs? Is the plural Jacobses or Jacobss (the double ss for a plural spelling popped up when I Googled it).

Seriously? Do you know of any word in the language that ends in S in which we make it a plural by adding another s?

The only ones I saw were Jacobs's.

Tim Jacobs's house is the last one on the street.

Re: Plural surname

Anonymous — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:35:03 GMT

Do you believe the same pattern is true for the surname Jacobs? Is the plural Jacobses or Jacobss (the double ss for a plural spelling popped up when I Googled it).

Re: Plural surname

Grammar Geek — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:26:43 GMT

Anonymous

Either is acceptable.

Could you give a bit more explanation about what you mean here, Anon?

Re: Plural surname

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:59:17 GMT

Either is acceptable.

Re: Plural surname

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 19:03:27 GMT

The plural of Bews is Bewses, as Joneses is the plural of Jones, as in "keeping up with the Joneses". There is one Bob Bews in this town. There are two Bob Bewses in this town.

Bew's means that one Bew possesses something, as in Bob Bew's hat is in the ring, i.e., the hat of Bob Bew is in the ring.

Bewses means that more than one Bews possesses something, e.g., those are the Bewses' horses, i.e., the horses belong to the Bewses.

When referring to the Bewses, Bews' and Bews's mean nothing.

Re: Plural surname

khoff — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 06:51:37 GMT

If you are just identifying the family, it would be "the Bews family" rather than "the Bews' family," because you are saying which family, not whose family. "The Bewses" would also be fine. You could say "I went to visit the Bews family" or "I went to visit the Bewses"

Re: Plural surname

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 01:53:43 GMT

A related question:

Should it be "The Bews family" or "The Bews' family"?
Is either of the above equivalent to "The Bewses"?

Thanks.

Ricky

Re: Plural surname

CalifJim — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 01:45:18 GMT

It amuses the Bewses to abuse the Muses.

Re: Plural surname

khoff — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 00:43:24 GMT

I disagree with both of the previous responses. The question is about plurals, not possessives, so I don't think you would use an apostrophe. The second answer, Bewes, is probably just a typo -- I think what you're looking for is Bewses. (I've never heard of this name, by the way. But adding "es" works for Jones/Joneses.) Or you could avoid the problem by saying something like "I went to visit the Bews family."