My “Dogs’s” Toy Only Sounds Funny When You Think About It Too Much

Hi there, you have A Way with Words.

Oh my gosh, hi.

My name is Anna Gaines.

I’m from Omaha, Nebraska.

I had a question.

Plural possessive.

So if I was saying, like, that’s my dog’s toy, would I do D-O-G-S? Or would I do D-O-G-S apostrophe S? So dogs is, like, that’s my dog’s toy. Or would I just say that’s my dog’s toy?

So you have more than one dog.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it’s different if you’re speaking than if you’re writing, isn’t it? Because it’s sometimes hard to understand when you’re speaking whether or not you’re talking about a single animal or multiple animals. That’s why I had to ask you whether or not you had more than one dog.

I can’t hear whether or not you were just doing a possessive on a singular dog or possessive on a plural dog if you just do D-O-G-S apostrophe to mean possessive for a plural.

So usually when we’re speaking, we say dog’s bed. I know it’s weird, but it is something we do naturally when we don’t think about it. Because it’s an easy way to make it clear that we have more than one dog and that they have something like a toy or a bed.

So it can say the dog’s is bed, the dog’s is toy. And we do this without even thinking about it. When we think about it, we say, oh, wait, that’s weird. Why do we say dog’s is, dog’s is? It’s like two Z sounds in a row is kind of weird, right? But it does work. And that’s why we do that.

Because if I say the dog’s bed, which is two dogs, or the dog’s toy, which is two dogs who have a toy or a bed, you can’t hear that there’s two dogs there who have those things, right? So you don’t know. So it doesn’t work spoken out loud. So to say dog’s his bed or dog’s his toy and it works.

Okay.

If you’re writing, it’s clear and you can go either way. You can say the dog’s toy, D-O-G-S apostrophe, and that works. And that’s fine. And actually, that’s the more formal way to do it. If you were writing, say, to somebody important, like principal or mayor, the president, the king, somebody like that. You know, the leader of your church or something.

Anna, I have two dogs, and I think I just say the dog’s toy because they share them.

Yeah, that’s true.

Yeah.

Anna, I want to hear about your dogs. So tell us your dogs’ names.

So I actually don’t have a dog because I’m allergic, but I have a fish. His name is Echo. He’s a betta fish. And, oh, to be honest, sometimes I forget about him because all that he really does is swim around in a 10-gallon tank all day. But that’s fun. But Beta’s going to be beautiful. Is he beautiful?

Yeah, he’s really pretty. He’s really, really pretty.

Okay.

Yeah, well, give Echo a little extra pinch of food for us, will you?

Yes.

Yes, I will.

All right.

Take care of yourself, Anna. Thank you for calling. We appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

I love you guys.

Love you back.

Call us again sometime, okay?

All right.

All right.

Be well.

Bye, Anna.

Bye.

Well, you can get your dogs in your laps and use their little paws to dial the telephone. Have your little cuties dial 1-877-929-9673. And then you can bark together into the phone your question about language.