When using the phrase "for f*cks sake," should "f*cks" have an apostrophe?
For fuck’s sake?
For fucks’ sake?
For fucks sake?
‘Tis a puzzlement.
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I’ll go with number 1, Alex unless you’re talking about more fucks than one.
(Watch out, this Q may be modded for curse words in the OP.)
I’ll go with number 3 Alex, since it was probably said in exasperation.
@chyna Exasperation is no excuse for improper punctuation!
I think it’s “4 Phuchs Sake”.
Or maybe “For f—- sake.” Only one s for “sake”. Like in “For shit sake!”
For fuck’s sake
Same principle as for Christ’s sake
I think it makes a difference if you are thinking of it as a noun, or verb. I think it only counts anyway if it is a good fuck. Bad fucks don’t rate intervention for their sake.
1. The fuck possess something… a sake to be exact. I think the ’ at the end of a word is used when the word already ends in an s.
Or perhaps the person is splitting the word “forsake” (to quit or leave) in which case there should be hyphens, not apostrophes.
It’s so important to have impeccable grammar when using the eff-word.
I’d say “For fuck’s sake” is the proper way to write it, that is unless it’s the sake of two or more fucks. In the latter case “For fucks’ sake” would be the proper one.
Good ol’ fuck.
@AstroChuck. I agree. That is the proper way(s) to write it(s). But what is the proper way(s) to say it(s)? Or is it ‘thems’? I’m so confused.
It is a plural, so I go for no apostrophe.
It has a related phrase, “I don’t give fuck,” which has lately been adjusted to show being exasperated and done as “no more fucks to give”, which is why I go for the plural sense and not the possessive.
Oh for fucks sake, it is No. 3.
NO IT ISN’T! Just like if you said, “It’s Pete’s house.” The ’ shows possession. You wouldn’t say “Petes house,” for Pete’s sake!
@zenvelo It’s not a plural. A plural would be like, “I don’t give 2 fucks.”
@Dutchess_III You just made my argument about it being plural.
Really, I don’t give a fuck what you insist. I will not use the apostrophe. Fuck off. :-)
How did I make your point? I showed an example of how plural fucks would be written.
“Fuck’s” as a positive, not a plural, requires an apostrophe.
As for fucking off….Nooo! I cannot! ~
Saying, “I don’t give 2 fucks,” is using it as a noun.
Well, here’s the skinny. Everyone is wrong.
I got it on good authority that there is no “s“on the end of fuche. The ssss sound you hear is just from the beginning of sake.
The f word is neither plural nor possessive.
^^^ Actually that kind of makes sense.
I stand corrected.
The Oxford University Press says “for fuck’s sake!”
And one comment eschewed @Patty_Melt‘s construction as meaning “exasperated with Japanese rice wine”.
Of course it is – it’s for the sake of fuck so it has to be possessive. (Besides, I wrote the OED in a former life.)
Wait wait! What if we have multiple fucks with sakes?
Lol!! Fucksesses it is I think.
Let’s deconstruct. In the first two examples “sake” is the object of the preposition “for”, modified by a possessive.
Example #1, For fuck’s sake indicates “for the sake of a/the fuck.”
Example 2, For fucks’ sake indicates “for the sake of a/the fucks.”
Example 3 just makes no grammatical sense whatever.
It doesn’t make grammatical sense in that particular context, but it does make sense if you have multiple fucks, see.
And I thought the general rule for putting the apostrophe behind the S to show possesive was only used if the word already ended in S. “They were Chris’ shoes.”
The apostrophe goes behind the s also on plurals.
Oxford Dictionaries describes it like this:
“For a plural noun, such as elephants, you add an apostrophe to the end: The elephants’ parade was troubled by rain.”
[...]
“The place it gets tricky is with personal names, such as Charles and Ulysses, which already end in an s sound. In those cases, you generally add an apostrophe plus s if you naturally pronounce an extra s when you say the word out loud: Charles’s new tie is fantastic. If you don’t pronounce an extra s when you say the word, then leave it out: Ulysses’ presentation is set for Monday.”
link
I see what you’re saying @Soubresaut. So, if the word ends in “es” to begin with, like Ulysses, you throw in an apostrophe at the end, or you end up with “Ulyssesessssss…” But with “Chris” you’d put an apostrophe S. That makes sense.
Either way, they show possessive, not plural.
I would just add an apostrophe to Chris. Is that the right way to do it? I’d write Chris’.
Recently, I was writing Gus’s Fried Chicken (the best fried chicken in the land) and I looked it up to see how they write it, because I questioned my memory, and they spell it out Gus’s, but I wouldn’t if I was just using Gus’ in a sentence and it wasn’t the name of a restaurant.
So, if I wrote my parents’ house, meaning where both of my parents live, is that correct? I had to write this just the other day.
No. Any apostrophe means a possessive, not a plural. A plural is indicated by no apostrophe. My parents live in that house. That house is my parent’s house. Wait. This is getting confusing! Welcome to Fluther!
The thing about “parent” is that is usually assumed to be plural, I think. It’s almost always used with an S, “parents.” So I think to write it correctly, showing possessive _and plural would be “parents’s.” Right or wrong, guys? Spell check says I’m full of it.
And “parents” is what happens when you start giving fucks away, BTW.
@JLeslie has it exactly right this time. Parent is singular; parents is plural so in order to talk about the house belonging to both her parents, she would write “parents’ house.”
OK.So the plural of Ulysses would be ______________
And the possesive plural of Ulysses would be ____________
Ulysses is a proper noun so there usually wouldn’t be one but if there were more than one, it would be “Ulyssess.” And I think we don’t need to worry much about the possessions of more than one Ulysses – that’s just being argumentative. :-)
Sure there could be more than one proper noun. My son, Chris, often had one or more other boys named Chris in his classroom. So what would the plural of Chris be, and the plural possessive of Chris? Chrises’ class room?
BUT the catch is also that the singular of Chris does not end in the ES sound like the singular of Ulysses.
@Dutchess_III The possessive of Chris is Chris’s. If there are more than one, they would be the Chrises. If they were sharing a project, it would be the Chrises’ project.
I’m nominating Rick for sainthood!
@Strauss I only had one fuck left to give.
Chrises’? That doesn’t seem right. I wouldn’t think to write it that way. You can’t put an “es” on a name to make it plural I don’t think. Can you? This is all news to me.
@JLeslie I actually remember thinking that exact thing and having a conversation about it with two different teachers. The Jones family was referred to as “the Joneses,” and their house was referred to as “the Joneses’ house,” although both were pronounced the same.
Mike’s. Mikes. Well, yes, you can @JLeslie. “There were 3 Mikes in the class.” The problem is when you have a name ending in S or worse, ES, like Ulysses. I just don’t see writing “There were 4 Ulysseses in the class.”
Wait. I found something:
There are exceptions for words ending is S and ES.
@Dutchess_III We are talking about proper nouns (names). Unfortunately, the link does not have information about plurals of proper nouns.
When a family name (a proper noun) is pluralized, we almost always simply add an “s.” So we go to visit the Smiths, the Kennedys, the Grays, etc.When a family name ends in s, x, ch, sh, or z, however, we form the plural by added -es, as in the Marches, the Joneses, the Maddoxes, the Bushes, the Rodriguezes. Do not form a family name plural by using an apostrophe; that device is reserved for creating possessive forms. Another link
I think we’re all in agreement for fuck’s sake.
Well, no. There is still some debate over proper nouns.
^Take an English class for fuck’s sake.
Why pay for a class when I have you guys and Google?
@Dutchess_III This question is not about the plurals of proper nouns. Please, ask a new question.
It’s in social. It goes where ever it goes, and this is where it has gone. It was just a fun question anyway, not a serious one. I hope for fuck’s sake it wasn’t serious!
@Dutchess_III, isn’t this the part where you say “everybody’s answered so it doesn’t matter” as you have before?
What? If you guys are going to be so anal about stupid stuff, stick with questions in the General section.
And yes. Everyone has offered their opinion, mostly in fun. Shame on them. And this is were it led. If you have a different opinion, that no one else has offered, specifically on the words “fucks, fuck’s, and fucks’ bring it on.
Can you hear my eyes rolling? You derail the thread with your anal fixation on plurals, of course you don’t like it when you get called on it.
LOLL!! But that’s what the thread was about, generally! How to form plurals and possessives! It leading to proper nouns was perfectly logical, and it spun off into another question unto itself. And it’s not like I was talking to myself. @JLeslie, @Strauss, @Hawaii_Jake and @janbb and I were discussing it. And then you freaked out.
Go ahead and give your opinion on the literal question. No one is going to stop you, but you have, again, successfully killed a Social question, so I’ll be surprised if anyone responds after this.
Bye.
Oh, for the sake of fuck!
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