Monday, March 14, 2011

day 66: brothers-in-law or brother-in-laws?

This tricky plural rule is probably misused more than it is used correctly!

The key to making hyphenated words plural is to pluralize the first part--the noun part.

Thus, the following words are pluraled as listed:

1. Brother-in-law---brothers-in-law

2. Sister-in-law---sisters-in-law

3. Mother-in-law---mothers-in-law

4. Father-in-law---fathers-in-law

You are making the brother, sister, mother, and father plural--not the law part!

Exceptions are when an adjective comes first:

1. Great-grandma---great grandmas (you are not making great plural)

2. Great-nephew---great nephews

No comments:

Post a Comment