Re: SubmittingPatches typo

From: Jan Engelhardt
Date: Mon Mar 20 2006 - 16:19:37 EST


>>> > > -Linus Torvald's mail on the canonical patch format:
>>> > > +Linus Torvalds' mail on the canonical patch format:
>>> > Neither. (It would have been correct in German, though.)
>>> > Correct is - in English:
>>> > Linus Torvalds's mail on the canonical patch format:
>>>
>>> I agree with Pavel. i think its a rule in english that when the word
>>> ends with s, you dont repeat another s after the '
>>
>> When a word ends with an 's' *because it is plural* (i.e. the s denotes
>> plurality) then you omit the second 's'. If the word ends with 's' in singular
>> form you do the whole whack: ..s's.
>>
>> I can't quote a source for this, but it's something I've known for years.
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genitive
>

Anyway, I have a more authoritative source[1], which says

Singular
Kate's book
Father's pipe
Charles's records
Alice's cassettes
Plural
my parents' books
the boys' room
the children's toys
men's clothes

<Warning sign>
My friend's bike is new.
My friends' bikes are over there.

<Translated> With singular, an apostrophe and an s is added
to the noun. As for plural forms with a trailing -s, only an
apostrophe is added. Other plural forms get an apostrophe and an s
(like with singular).

Family names ending in -s may either have apostrophe + S or just
an apostrophe appended.

Mrs Jones's/Jones' hats
The Bates's/Bates' house

So in our Torvalds case, we have the option.


[1] Ungerer/Pasch/Lampater/Hellyer-Jones
"Learning English, Grundgrammatik" isbn 3-12-511510-8
distributed by Klett


Jan Engelhardt
--
| Software Engineer and Linux/Unix Network Administrator
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