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Pendeen560 Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Mr and Mrs Childs. What's the plural?

Hi,

Can I refer to Mr and Mrs Childs as the Childses?

For example

1 The Childses are coming to dinner tonight.

Are they both correct?

2. The Childses' daughter will be accompanying them.

3. The Childs' daughter will be accompanying them.

Thanks

Dave
  

Top answer

For words ending in "s" add "es" to make them plural. For names ending in "s" add apostrophe s to create the possessive if singular and "es" if plural. The Childses - plural The Childs's - possesive The Childses' - possessive plural The Childses are coming to dinner tonight.

— LouiseT

  • For words ending in "s" add "es" to make them plural.
  • For names ending in "s" add apostrophe s to create the possessive if singular and "es" if plural.
  • The Childses - plural The Childs's - possesive The Childses' - possessive plural The Childses are coming to dinner tonight.
  • The Childses' daughter will be accompanying them.
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5 Answers
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For words ending in "s" add "es" to make them plural. For names ending in "s" add apostrophe s to create the possessive if singular and "es" if plural.

The Childses - plural
The Childs's - possesive
The Childses' - possessive plural

The Childses are coming to dinner tonight.
The Childses' daughter will be accompanying them.
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pendeen5601 The Childses are coming to dinner tonight.
That sounds wrong to me. In contexts such as this, I think the plural is ignored.
The Childs are coming to dinner tonight - simply, it's enough.
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I don't ignore the rule and my name ends in S.

I add -es to our family name to be plural.
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Regarding the correct plurality of names ending with "s", I agree, grammatically, the correct form should be adding "es", such as "The Joneses". I commented that it sounded wrong, and what I actually meant was, it sounded a mouthful and clumsy, to my ears. There are probably half a dozen names of this natures that I can easily call out off the top of my head:

Hayes - The Hayes
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Then you don't know enough people.

"Keeping up with the Joneses." - It's said "Jones-iz." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_up_with_the_Joneses

Use the -es ending.

Or don't - do what you want.
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