Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
How do you pluralize "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words? Dictionaries say the plural is "fathers-in-law", but I say "father-in-laws".
Re: Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
I've never had the need to pluralize them, but if I were to I'd say 'fathers-in-law' and like.
Yaaludinuya siima d'at yiseka wohadetafa gaare.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
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zompist
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Re: Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
These are part of a whole range of expressions NP + PP. I'm guessing that you'd reject at least some of these possible plurals:
attorney generals
man-at-arms
lady-in-waitings
man of Gods
Man in Blacks
punch in the noses
It's not very surprising that over centuries, lexicalized NP+PPs may be reanalyzed as simple nouns. Note that even Merriam-Webster can't bring itself to suggest "jacks-in-the-box" as the first cited plural. It does give it, but after "jack-in-the-boxes".
You used to be able to search Google and Bing for specific text, but that's been ruined. Nonetheless it's clear that "Xs-in-law" and "X-in-laws" are both used.
attorney generals
man-at-arms
lady-in-waitings
man of Gods
Man in Blacks
punch in the noses
It's not very surprising that over centuries, lexicalized NP+PPs may be reanalyzed as simple nouns. Note that even Merriam-Webster can't bring itself to suggest "jacks-in-the-box" as the first cited plural. It does give it, but after "jack-in-the-boxes".
You used to be able to search Google and Bing for specific text, but that's been ruined. Nonetheless it's clear that "Xs-in-law" and "X-in-laws" are both used.
Re: Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
About attorney general, prescriptively general is a postposed adjective, so it is attorney that gets pluralized. However, postposed adjectives are generally not productive in modern English (they are a feature that got cribbed from Old Norman back when) outside of very poetic language, so attorney general readily gets reanalyzed as a single noun, and hence is pluralized in much common usage as attorney generals.
Yaaludinuya siima d'at yiseka wohadetafa gaare.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
Re: Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
"man of Gods" sounds like it might have two different meanings to me.
Re: Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
"Man of Gods" makes me think of a devotee of multiple Old Gods...
Yaaludinuya siima d'at yiseka wohadetafa gaare.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
Re: Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
Well, yes, for the last one especially, I'd definitely say "punches in the nose." Also "pains in the butt/ass/neck" would definitely be the plural of "pain in the butt/ass/neck."zompist wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2024 3:40 pm These are part of a whole range of expressions NP + PP. I'm guessing that you'd reject at least some of these possible plurals:
attorney generals
man-at-arms
lady-in-waitings
man of Gods
Man in Blacks
punch in the noses
It's not very surprising that over centuries, lexicalized NP+PPs may be reanalyzed as simple nouns. Note that even Merriam-Webster can't bring itself to suggest "jacks-in-the-box" as the first cited plural. It does give it, but after "jack-in-the-boxes".
You used to be able to search Google and Bing for specific text, but that's been ruined. Nonetheless it's clear that "Xs-in-law" and "X-in-laws" are both used.
Re: Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
"Xs-in-law" sounds more natural to me than "X-in-laws". Interestingly, for the genitive, "X-in-law's" seems preferable to "X's-in-law".
*I* used to be a front high unrounded vowel. *You* are just an accidental diphthong.
Re: Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
"Pain in the butts/asses/necks" is acceptable to me in the more common metaphoric sense. "Pains" suggests actual physical pains to me.
What do folks have for the plural of "passerby"?
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TomHChappell
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Re: Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
Passersby. Or maybe passers-by.
Re: Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
I must agree on this one.
I have passersby for this.
Yaaludinuya siima d'at yiseka wohadetafa gaare.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
Re: Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
Me too. Conceivably we have a noun which forms its plural with an infix.
*I* used to be a front high unrounded vowel. *You* are just an accidental diphthong.
Re: Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
I'm inclined to call it an orthographic irregularity in dropping a hyphen. Passer-by is an agent noun regularly formed (compare hanger-on) from the phrasal verb pass by. Note the stress as compared to something like Wetherby.
Re: Plural of "father-in-law" and other "X-in-law" words.
"son-of-a-bitches" sounds wrong... ("sons-of-bitches" sounds better)... but that didn't stop it from appearing in the movie "Samurai Cop": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0IBhUoPlfMattorney generals
man-at-arms
lady-in-waitings
man of Gods
Man in Blacks
punch in the noses