On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 2:03 AM, Kevin M. <drunkbastar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> This is popping up in blog after blog and dozens of news stories, but > I'm having trouble pinning down the correct grammatical form. I asked > on my Facebook and a few people have weighed in (including Ed from > this list -- thanks, Ed). I thought I'd throw it open to the > braintrust at large and see what everyone thinks. > > 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. > > I do believe it is -es, because I'm a descriptivist and people say "Bushes" to refer to them as plural rather than "Bush". If there is no clear known rule, there is no rule. I never heard of the no -es rule for names. That said, for now on I'd probably avoid the whole thing by writing "Bush family" and using "the family" for subsequent references. -- Wesley McGee http://www.ambivi.com http://drawing-a-blank.tumblr.com -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
