I think it makes a difference if you are thinking of it as a noun, or verb. I think it only counts anyway if it is a good fuck. Bad fucks don’t rate intervention for their sake.
I’d say “For fuck’s sake” is the proper way to write it, that is unless it’s the sake of two or more fucks. In the latter case “For fucks’ sake” would be the proper one.
Good ol’ fuck.
It has a related phrase, “I don’t give fuck,” which has lately been adjusted to show being exasperated and done as “no more fucks to give”, which is why I go for the plural sense and not the possessive.
Well, here’s the skinny. Everyone is wrong.
I got it on good authority that there is no “s“on the end of fuche. The ssss sound you hear is just from the beginning of sake.
The f word is neither plural nor possessive.
It doesn’t make grammatical sense in that particular context, but it does make sense if you have multiple fucks, see.
And I thought the general rule for putting the apostrophe behind the S to show possesive was only used if the word already ended in S. “They were Chris’ shoes.”
“For a plural noun, such as elephants, you add an apostrophe to the end: The elephants’ parade was troubled by rain.”
[...]
“The place it gets tricky is with personal names, such as Charles and Ulysses, which already end in an s sound. In those cases, you generally add an apostrophe plus s if you naturally pronounce an extra s when you say the word out loud: Charles’s new tie is fantastic. If you don’t pronounce an extra s when you say the word, then leave it out: Ulysses’ presentation is set for Monday.”
I see what you’re saying @Soubresaut. So, if the word ends in “es” to begin with, like Ulysses, you throw in an apostrophe at the end, or you end up with “Ulyssesessssss…” But with “Chris” you’d put an apostrophe S. That makes sense.
Either way, they show possessive, not plural.
I would just add an apostrophe to Chris. Is that the right way to do it? I’d write Chris’.
Recently, I was writing Gus’s Fried Chicken (the best fried chicken in the land) and I looked it up to see how they write it, because I questioned my memory, and they spell it out Gus’s, but I wouldn’t if I was just using Gus’ in a sentence and it wasn’t the name of a restaurant.
No. Any apostrophe means a possessive, not a plural. A plural is indicated by no apostrophe. My parents live in that house. That house is my parent’s house. Wait. This is getting confusing! Welcome to Fluther!
The thing about “parent” is that is usually assumed to be plural, I think. It’s almost always used with an S, “parents.” So I think to write it correctly, showing possessive _and plural would be “parents’s.” Right or wrong, guys? Spell check says I’m full of it.
And “parents” is what happens when you start giving fucks away, BTW.
@JLeslie has it exactly right this time. Parent is singular; parents is plural so in order to talk about the house belonging to both her parents, she would write “parents’ house.”
Ulysses is a proper noun so there usually wouldn’t be one but if there were more than one, it would be “Ulyssess.” And I think we don’t need to worry much about the possessions of more than one Ulysses – that’s just being argumentative. :-)
Sure there could be more than one proper noun. My son, Chris, often had one or more other boys named Chris in his classroom. So what would the plural of Chris be, and the plural possessive of Chris? Chrises’ class room?
BUT the catch is also that the singular of Chris does not end in the ES sound like the singular of Ulysses.
@Dutchess_III The possessive of Chris is Chris’s. If there are more than one, they would be the Chrises. If they were sharing a project, it would be the Chrises’ project.
Chrises’? That doesn’t seem right. I wouldn’t think to write it that way. You can’t put an “es” on a name to make it plural I don’t think. Can you? This is all news to me.
@JLeslie I actually remember thinking that exact thing and having a conversation about it with two different teachers. The Jones family was referred to as “the Joneses,” and their house was referred to as “the Joneses’ house,” although both were pronounced the same.
Mike’s. Mikes. Well, yes, you can @JLeslie. “There were 3 Mikes in the class.” The problem is when you have a name ending in S or worse, ES, like Ulysses. I just don’t see writing “There were 4 Ulysseses in the class.”
Wait. I found something:
There are exceptions for words ending is S and ES.
When a family name (a proper noun) is pluralized, we almost always simply add an “s.” So we go to visit the Smiths, the Kennedys, the Grays, etc.When a family name ends in s, x, ch, sh, or z, however, we form the plural by added -es, as in the Marches, the Joneses, the Maddoxes, the Bushes, the Rodriguezes. Do not form a family name plural by using an apostrophe; that device is reserved for creating possessive forms.Another link
It’s in social. It goes where ever it goes, and this is where it has gone. It was just a fun question anyway, not a serious one. I hope for fuck’s sake it wasn’t serious!
What? If you guys are going to be so anal about stupid stuff, stick with questions in the General section.
And yes. Everyone has offered their opinion, mostly in fun. Shame on them. And this is were it led. If you have a different opinion, that no one else has offered, specifically on the words “fucks, fuck’s, and fucks’ bring it on.
LOLL!! But that’s what the thread was about, generally! How to form plurals and possessives! It leading to proper nouns was perfectly logical, and it spun off into another question unto itself. And it’s not like I was talking to myself. @JLeslie, @Strauss, @Hawaii_Jake and @janbb and I were discussing it. And then you freaked out.
Go ahead and give your opinion on the literal question. No one is going to stop you, but you have, again, successfully killed a Social question, so I’ll be surprised if anyone responds after this.