punctuation - belonging to more than one pig

the pig's work?
the pigs' work?
the pigs's work?

Which is belonging to more than one pig?

Which is belonging to pigs in general?

r ranson wrote:the pig's work?
the pigs' work?
the pigs's work?

Which is belonging to more than one pig?

Which is belonging to pigs in general?

What I was taught is "pigs' work" -- applicable in any case when you are discussing a possessive apostrophe and a plural ending in "s".   I don't think there's a difference between:

"I have three pigs and I hate washing the pigs' food trough"

versus

"The devil made a deal with swinedom to curl pigs' tails in exchange for eternal fealty."

I find the "right" way to do this so visually offensive to my eye as a reader that, as a writer, I will almost always rephrase to avoid these terminal apostrophes, no matter how correct they may be.  As in the famous Sepp Holzer advice, where the anecdote is usually told as "You must do the work of the pigs."

My name is Chris. I have dealt with this issue intimately since I first started spelling.

Any time I see an "s" added to a terminal apostrophe, I start repeating, "...My Precious..." Any time I see someone using terminal apostrophes properly, I smile.

The correct punctuation is, indeed, "The pigs' work."

-CK

I love that there is no language police for the English language, and no institution that decides what is proper or improper usage.  Therefore, each person who writes in English gets one vote of influence over how the language is used. If enough people use a certain punctuation in a certain way, then it may become more popular, and outdated grammar or punctuation become marginalized.

In the version of English that I understand, pigs' and pigs's are exact synonyms. I might pronounce them differently in oral dialog.

Some people complain that I hijacked the meaning of the word "landrace". I just smile. People are free to use language as they like, and more influential writers are more likely to have their language adopted.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:
Some people complain that I hijacked the meaning of the word "landrace". I just smile.  

Cheeky thief! :D

r ranson wrote:
Which is belonging to more than one pig?

Which is belonging to pigs in general?

"A wiggly biggly amount of work done by those pigs...."  

:-)

But yes, Chris'ssss'sss's assessment is correct.

(Admission....I've inhaled too much of Manitoba's smoke over the weekend....)

Chris Kott wrote:My name is Chris. I have dealt with this issue intimately since I first started spelling.

Any time I see an "s" added to a terminal apostrophe, I start repeating, "...My Precious..." Any time I see someone using terminal apostrophes properly, I smile.

The correct punctuation is, indeed, "The pigs' work."

-CK

Well done Chris! My son's name is James. Similar problems!

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:I love that there is no language police for the English language, and no institution that decides what is proper or improper usage.  Therefore, each person who writes in English gets one vote of influence over how the language is used. If enough people use a certain punctuation in a certain way, then it may become more popular, and outdated grammar or punctuation become marginalized.

In the version of English that I understand, pigs' and pigs's are exact synonyms. I might pronounce them differently in oral dialog.

Some people complain that I hijacked the meaning of the word "landrace". I just smile. People are free to use language as they like, and more influential writers are more likely to have their language adopted.

There used to be no thought for language police; everyone simply tried to maintain the same standard to ensure proper understanding, even generations later. It's much more important with the written word, as there is no personified context in the person of the person talking, lending layers of meaning with tone and inflection, and probably a fair bit of invective we don't tend to write down.

But people don't even spell for themselves anymore. Everyone in my grade, except me and a handful like me, hated grammar and could hardly see the point; my biggest issue was learning the nomenclature for the parts of speech I used instinctively, as some people spell, because it looks, feels, or sounds right.

As to "landrace," Joseph, how does what you do differ from the traditional meaning of the word? Because you're guiding the selection?

I mean, I'm not saying that dumbing down how we communicate will dumb down how we think, which will cause cognitive regression in the species, at least I think it won't, but it's damned annoying that I went to all the trouble of learning all this shit, and nobody's going to bother using it. Fuck that shit. I'm hanging on to my terminal apostrophes, and making an's of a's in cases such as RMH, where I need to glottal stop a vowel allision (I mean come on, people, that's just uncomfortable!) just so I don't sound like I've been drinking.

And one day, I hope that, along with imperial measurements in all but common usage and the pronounciation of the last letter of the alphabet in a way that rhymes with "pee," this silly aversion to the proper spelling of words like colour, valour, neighbour, and so on, be left in the dustbin of history.

But we'll keep "jail" spelled as such, and not "gaol." There are limits.

-CK