Keeping
up with the Joneses--or with the Drapers. Our office was desolate when we heard
that the popular series 
Mad Men was delaying its fifth
season.
Soon enough, talk turned to the cocktails that so mark the show, and the question came up, as it does in publishing wonk circles: What is the plural form for cocktails? Mai Tais or Mai Tai's? Two Bloody Marys? Three G&T's? A dip into the inebriating world of plurals, possessives, and proper nouns.
Many of us are pretty clear about plurals and common nouns. Regular nouns get -s at the end, or -es, depending on the sound of their last letters. Irregular nouns and nouns of Latin or Greek origin get differently spelled plurals.
We've talked about collective nouns and noncount nouns here before; they have their own byways and oddities of usage regarding whether they are plural or not. One particularly wonderful and succinct article on plurals is this excellent online Guide to Grammar and Writing piece from the Capital Community College Foundation.
Their discussion of the role of apostrophes in plural foundation coincides with my own understanding. In only two cases do we ever use an apostrophe to create the plural of a word: when we indicate the plural of a letter of the alphabet (A's, your p's and q's) and when we pluralize words as words (There were five "martini"s in that conversation with Sperling.) Of course, there's dissension: some copyeditors prefer setting martini in italic and adding a roman s at the end instead.
Possessives are forms of nouns that indicate case. Their particular spelling, the ending -'s, indicates ownership. (Geek notes: 1. That spelling change is an inflection. 2. Nouns that change spelling to indicate their grammatical role in a sentence are said to decline. Thus the propensity for British schoolboys to whine about declining nouns--it's like conjugating verbs. 3.The possessive case is similar, though not identical to, the genitive case in Latin and Greek. 4. Old English had lots of inflected forms, and case grammar was more important in that language than in modern English. 5. I am a geek.)
So, when my officemate asked how to make Mai Tai, Bloody Mary, or Gin and Tonic plural, I could not only say, "Have more than one!" I could also say, "Shaken-- just add an -s. Not stirred-- no apostrophe." And for myself? I'll have a few Pellegrinos with lime.
What's your favorite plural question? And who's your favorite Mad Men character?
Ellen Scordato has 25 years' book publishing experience as an editor, copy editor, proofreader, and managing editor. She's now a partner in The Stonesong Press, a nonfiction book producer and agency. In addition to her work at Stonesong, Ellen has taught grammar, punctuation, and style at the New School for more than 12 years in the English Language Studies department and taught English as a Second Language at Cabrini Immigrant Services.
