Possessive help...

[Jo Zebedee]

Two scoots took up flanking positions around theirs’



This is from the pov of one of three people on a scoot. Should there be a possessive on theirs? It looks weird... Please help, oh grammaticians.

Muchly thanks.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Theirs is possessive. No apostrophe needed. Mine, ours, theirs.

I might use "around them" instead, though.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Perfect, thanks. I might rephrase, but I also wanted to know.

 

[chrispenycate]

Agree with the stripy one, possessive pronouns (adds 'yours' and 'its') don't take apostrophes. And we're 'grammarians' .

 

[Kylara]

Nope, no apostrophe - already possessive with the 's' (theirs)

ETA: beaten to it by our other resident grammarians

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

Please may I jump on Springs' bandwagon here and ask the combined talent of Chrons a similar question?

If I'm saying each other's eyes, as in avoiding each other's eyes should the apostrophe be before the s as shown or after - others' eyes?

Mental block. Whichever way I write it looks wrong!

Sorry, Springs...

 

[HareBrain]

Please may I jump on Springs' bandwagon here and ask the combined talent of Chrons a similar question?

If I'm saying each other's eyes, as in avoiding each other's eyes should the apostrophe be before the s as shown or after - others' eyes?

Mental block. Whichever way I write it looks wrong!

Sorry, Springs...

It would be "the others' eyes" (if there were more than one other), but "each other" is singular, so it's "each other's eyes".

 

[chrispenycate]

If there are only two of them, each has one other - but that's a total of two others, so… I'm still going for the internal apostrophe. 'Look after each other' - there's no plural 's' in it. So 'look after each other's children', the apostrophe can't go after the 's', as it's a pure possessive. Equally 'look at each other's eyes.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

Thank you both. Sometimes I just look at a word and can't believe it's actually spelled like that. Usually when I've been writing all day and forgotten to eat, drink or go to the toilet. Like today.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Perfect, thanks. I might rephrase, but I also wanted to know.

Thought about why I said that, and figured it out.

If the scoots (are those boats?) are taking up flanking positions around a boat that they are in, they would be more likely to think of it as "around us" and hence "around them". If, on the other hand, the scoots are taking up flanking positions around a boat that they own (or are rooting for) but are not currently occupying, that is when they would think of it as "around their scoot", hence "around theirs".

At least, that's how it works out in my head, which can be a strange place indeed.

 

[HareBrain]

Sometimes I just look at a word and can't believe it's actually spelled like that.

Funnily enough, when replying to your question, I had that problem with "each". Actually, it wasn't so much the spelling that struck me as odd as the word's very existence. "Each". Say it aloud. "EACH!" Terrible. I can only assume part of our language is based on the noises one of our forefathers heard being made by an angry weasel.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

And some words, the longer you look at them, the sillier they look. I can't think of any at the moment, of course, but sometimes when I've used a word several times, I start thinking it's not a real word.

 

[tinkerdan]

That happens to me all the time.
Sometimes I think English is my second language.

And some words, the longer you look at them, the sillier they look. I can't think of any at the moment, of course, but sometimes when I've used a word several times, I start thinking it's not a real word.

I wish I knew what my first one was.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Me too. Exactly.
Maybe we are both Changelings.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

We changelings three.

Kerry, hijack away.

Thanks, all. (And yes, Dusty, that's why I had it as theirs... )

 

[David Evil Overlord]

In case of possession, perhaps a parson would be of more use than a grammatician?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

possessive pronouns (adds 'yours' and 'its') don't take apostrophes

Whatever our typing fingers seem to think when we aren't paying attention.

 

[chrispenycate]

Yeah, but my fingers are quite capable of typing "learn't" or "spen't", and several other totally incorrect contractions. Mostly I pick up on them pretty fast.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Yeah, but my fingers are quite capable of typing "learn't" or "spen't", and several other totally incorrect contractions. Mostly I pick up on them pretty fast.

Show off.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Yeah, but my fingers are quite capable of typing "learn't" or "spen't", and several other totally incorrect contractions.

Well, there you go. The fingers obviously believe in a lot more contractions and possessives than the (educated) mind does.

Or perhaps it's the keyboard playing tricks, trying to embarrass us.