Spoon Fulls?????

[mscallisto]

It has always bothered me when one says "three spoon fulls" in place of "three spoons full".

Others are Surgeon generals, hand fulls, brother-in-laws etc. Am I correct or wrong?

 

[sleipnir214]

And now there's a new Stella in town (Stella001 in addition to the venerable Stella740pl). Shall we refer to the two of them together as Stelli? Or maybe Stellapoda?

<facetious>
Nope. Stella is a feminine Latin word, meaning "star". As such, the plural is stellae.

I suppose, then, that if either of them do well, it would be appropriate to describe their performance as "stellar".
</facetious>

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[elanor]

Hey Grande!
Oddly enough, English does still have the -en version of fox, although the meaning and the pronunciation have both morphed over the years. The word is (drum roll, please) vixen. Say it when you're drunk for the full effect!
Thanks!
Elanor

 

[PaulTEG]

The pluralization of ox is likely older than Old English.

As Tery Pratchett's Trolls would have it, the educated ones at least
"One, er, Two, er, many, er, lots ..."


Spend an hour a week on CPAN, helps cure all known programming ailments ;-)

 

[sleipnir214]

One must keep in mind, however, that vixen is not the plural of fox but rather the word for a female fox. How vixen got into modern English is described in the "Word History" section of the YourDictionary.com entry for the word:

http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/v/v0132000.html

As I recall, the plural of VAX is VAXen, which follows the "-en" pluralization rule. But I don't think that counts.




Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[PaulTEG]

I love VAXen lots, they were great boxen ;-)

Spend an hour a week on CPAN, helps cure all known programming ailments ;-)

 

[SilentAiche]

Hmm, in the "-en" dialogue,

I vote for Pollen, even if it's typo-allergenic.

And, no, this isn't a joke about "stamen" power.

Tim

[gray]please read until you get three giggles, even mild ones[/gray]

[blue]______________________________________________________________
I love logging onto Tek-Tips. It's always so exciting to see what the hell I
said yesterday. [/blue]

 

[Stella001]

Actually I hang out in Georgia. I guess I would be considered a "lurker", I get allot of information and love tek tips, or should we say teks-tips. Sorry couldn't resist that one.

 

[snuv]

The cars of the wives of my wife's brothers would be what?

My Brothers in laws' wives' cars


"If it could have gone wrong earlier and it didn't, it ultimately would have been beneficial for it to have." : Murphy's Ultimate Corollary

 

[CajunCenturion]

My brothers in law's wives' cars.

'Law's' would not be plural possessive because the plural in on 'brothers'. Perhaps this very unorthodox use of parenthesis might better illustrate the handling this type of noun phase. Also remember, this type of noun phrase is built from a noun-adjective pair. The noun phrase is inside the parenthesis.

Singular noun = (brother in law)
Plural noun = (brothers in law)
Singular possessive = (brother in law)'s
Plural possessive = (brothers in law)'s



--------------
Good Luck
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[PaulTEG]

My sisters' cars ...

Spend an hour a week on CPAN, helps cure all known programming ailments ;-)

 

[SilentAiche]

"One, er, Two, er, many, er, lots ..."

Perhaps we should revisit the "buttload" discussion that appeared in another thread.

Tim

[blue]______________________________________________________________
I love logging onto Tek-Tips. It's always so exciting to see what the hell I
said yesterday. [/blue]

 

[SilentAiche]

My sisters' cars ...

In Raleigh, we have a "Rex Hospital." I'm not sure if there is a connection, but I wouldn't be surprised . I've seen her drive (er, my Sis, not Paul's).

Tim

[blue]______________________________________________________________
I love logging onto Tek-Tips. It's always so exciting to see what the hell I
said yesterday. [/blue]