A big thank you!

Gemini wrote

That depends on whether you are talking about a group of people or talking about something owned by them. Part of the problem is that the plural and the possessive sound almost the same, and in some usages they sound exactly the same.

As I was taught in school:

The plural of "Hollands" is "the Hollandses." The possessive of Hollands is Hollands', as in "The Hollandses [all of the people] all share equally in the use of the Hollands' vacation home [possessed by all of them].

Compare the common Welsh last name, "Williams". The family group are the Williamses. The house they own is "the Williams' house".

In an older form, the possessive was "the Williams's house", which sounds _exactly_ like the plural. I still think that's better than "the Williams' house", which sounds as though the house belongs to the head of a clan, called "The Williams" the way the head of Clan MacGregor is called The MacGregor (for instance). However, I'm just the one who got good marks on the exams; nobody listens to me :-)

It gets worse when people put up signs labeling their home. If the name were "Holland", their name as a group would be "The Hollands", and the house name could be "The Hollands' [house]". When the name is "Hollands", then the name as a group would be "The Hollandses" and the house would be "The Hollandses' [house]". In reality. the signs that I've seen just say "The Hollands". (That implies that the lawn with the sign on it _is_ the family.) It's just as well; doing it right would just cause trouble because people who don't know the rules would assume the name was spelled "Hollandse" and the confusion would be endless.

=Tamar, in a picky mood

Reply to
Richard Eney
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Funny you should mention the country, Mirjam. All through school my siblings and myself would be asked if we were Dutch because our last name is Hollands. No, we are not Dutch! Granddad Hollands came from England and so does his family name. His wife's maiden name was Waghorn, also from England... and I went to school with a Dutch girl who's last name was Hornweg.

So now, if someone asks me how to spell my name I just find it easier to just say "It's spelled like the Dutch country, but put an *s* on the end of it!" :o)

*hugs* Gemini
Reply to
Not Likely

Moebius (actually Möbius) is a proper name, the surname of the discoverer of the Moebius strip, Augustus Ferdinand Möbius, a German mathematician. The name should always start with a capital. The English plural is Moebiuses (analogous with Joneses).

Not an adjective but a proper noun.

Mary "Been playing with Moebius strips since the '50s"

Reply to
Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Sha

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