John in Tucson, Arizona, remembers his grandfather used the possessives hisn, hern, yourn, and ourn, as in Those cattle are hisn or That house is hern. These archaic forms originated hundreds of years ago, formed by analogy with mine and thine...
Why do we turn proper nouns, like JC Penney or Kroger, into possessives, as in, Penny’s or Kroger’s? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Plural Business Names” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Debbie from Indianapolis...
For the final word on grammar, many writers turn to the Associated Press Stylebook. But if you find that stylebook too stuffy, you’ll love Fake AP Stylebook, the online send-up that features such sage journalistic advice “The plural of apostrophe is...
What’s the possessive of y’all? Is it y’all’s? Y’alls? Y’alls’s? What do all ya’ll think?
Is it ever okay to write the word it’s to indicate the possessive? Is the correct sentence “The dog is chewing its bone,” or “The dog is chewing it’s bone”? It’s easy to figure out once you know the formula: It’s = it is. Grant mentions that there’s...
A caller observes that after moving to Indianapolis, he noticed that many of the locals say the names of commercial enterprises as if they’re plural or possessive, even when they’re not, such as calling Walmart “Walmart’s.” Grant explains the...