The Plural of S?

**gnome** · January-03-13, 10:04 AM

How should one write the plural of "s" in this sentence ?

"Mississippi is fun to write because it has so many ... "

s'es, s's, eses or ses?

**Zacha341** · January-03-13, 10:16 AM

"s's" or "S's"

What's the prize ...

...?

Originally Posted by gnome

How should one write the plural of "s" in this sentence ?

"Mississippi is fun to write because it has so many ... "

s'es, s's, eses or ses?

**JBMcB** · January-03-13, 10:17 AM

The plural of 's' is...

esses

**coracle** · January-03-13, 10:19 AM

Writing the 4 esses in Mississippi was so much fun I,I,I,I found I needed two pees.

**Meddle** · January-03-13, 10:58 AM

Originally Posted by coracle

found I needed two pees.

Foreigner goes into a restaurant to order breakfast and orders two pieces of toast. Waitress brings out only one piece. Guy complains in broken English "I want two peece, TWO PEECE. Waitress says "Down the hall on the left".

**jiminnm** · January-03-13, 12:39 PM

I'm not trying to jack your thread gnome, but your question raised another. When I went to A.L. Holmes elementary school, back in the days of candles and lanterns, I was taught the that the possessive of a word ending with s was s', as in "That was James' dog." Today, I almost always see s's, as in "That was James's dog." It's a form that seems unnecessary to me.

When did that start and which is correct?

**coracle** · January-03-13, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by Meddle

Foreigner goes into a restaurant to order breakfast and orders two pieces of toast. Waitress brings out only one piece. Guy complains in broken English "I want two peece, TWO PEECE. Waitress says "Down the hall on the left".

Another restaurant story:
To get business a restaurant was advertising "Order a dish we can't make and you eat free for a week". A guy walked in and ordered Tiger's Balls on toast. To his surprise the waiter asked him how he wanted them done and placed the order. However a little later he returned to report they couldn't do it. "Ha ha" said the man, "I knew you wouldn't have any Tiger's Balls" to which the waiter replied "No sir, we've run out of bread"
[[Think I'll go down the hall on the left)

**jcole** · January-03-13, 01:53 PM

s' is the correct plural on words ending in s.
If there were more than one James, it would be Jameses; as in "There are 10 Jameses in he classroom that those are that James' shoes.

**oladub** · January-03-13, 02:10 PM

jiminnm, I like your logic. That is what I was taught too. I asked my wife whose grammar and pronunciation pronunciations I defer to. Her comment was wholly practical. She said that if you wrote s', "no one would know what the hell you were talking about". She suggested writing "S"'s would be better understood written even if s' was technically correct.

**gnome** · January-03-13, 02:38 PM

If that is true, what would be the plural of 'e'? Ess? Ees?

**jiminnm** · January-03-13, 05:06 PM

Thanks oladub and jcole. I expect that 98% of the format I read in newspapers and magazines of all stripes uses s's. I won't even get into the volume and types of typos I see [[and I'm beginning to suspect no human actually reads much of what gets published and spell check is the only computer check).

**Jimaz** · January-03-13, 05:13 PM

The rule differs depending on whether the letter is capitalized.

Apostrophe, Use in forming certain plurals

**Ray1936** · January-03-13, 05:36 PM

Why am I getting Deja Vu about being in Mrs. Sweeney's 5th grade?

That aside, while I consider myself a decent writer who did well in grade school, I still have nightmares about having to diagram a sentence.