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Moivile Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

The Holmes

Here is the context:

http://lengish.com/texts/difficult/he-overdid-it.html





Having found out all he could about the Boggs and their neighbours, Highsmith returned to the city.



Does "The Boggs" mean "The Boggs family"?



Why isn't "The Boggses" written in the sentence?
  

Top answer

Generally (and remember English always has exceptions to every rule) surnames are pluralised to refer to the whole family. However, sometimes this results in something that the English do not feel sounds right. This often happens after a hard sounding syllable, and this usually occurs where a consonant is doubled eg the To pp s would not become the Toppses, the Bo gg s not be Boggses.

— Adrenochrome

  • Generally (and remember English always has exceptions to every rule) surnames are pluralised to refer to the whole family.
  • However, sometimes this results in something that the English do not feel sounds right.
  • This often happens after a hard sounding syllable, and this usually occurs where a consonant is doubled eg the To pp s would not become the Toppses, the Bo gg s not be Boggses.
  • Unfortunately, these exceptions are only learnt through experience.
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2 Answers
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Generally (and remember English always has exceptions to every rule) surnames are pluralised to refer to the whole family. However, sometimes this results in something that the English do not feel sounds right. This often happens after a hard sounding syllable, and this usually occurs where a consonant is doubled eg the Topps would not become the Toppses, the Boggs not be Boggses.
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MoivileDoes "The Boggs" mean "The Boggs family"?
Yes.
MoivileWhy isn't "The Boggses" written in the sentence?
Writers don't always add "es" when the family name already ends in "s". Boggses would also be correct.

CJ
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