I come seeking grammar. 'Cause I gotz nun.

[jaina47]

How do you plural a noun that's not meant to be pluralized?  

Example: "I would deal with a thousand Johns for you."   Do you just stick an 's' on the end?  I feel like there should be an apostrophe but that would make it possessive, right? And this isn't being possessive...I don't think.  I could just leave this for my poor beta to figure out later, I realize that, but I thought I'd give my flist and assorted peeps a shot first.

So...anyone have any grammar advice for me? 

Comments

[shadadukal]

Definitely just stick an S at the end. What you wrote may seem a bit weird, but it's correct.

[jaina47.livejournal.com]

Good to know! I think it's doubly weird for me because the word in my fic is 'Jeffrey' which ends in a 'y', so I kind of automatically want to stick an 'ies' on the end instead of just an 's'. And that makes no sense at all.

[shadadukal]

Yeah, I see what you mean. Pretty sure my answer still stands though. I don't think ordinary spelling changes such as these would take place on a proper noun.

[infinitlight.livejournal.com]

What shadadukal said. Many Johns, many Jeffreys, many Marys.

[jaina47.livejournal.com]

Thank you! When I was first typing I actually did the 'ies' to Jeffrey without thinking and then I was all...no wait...but it still didn't look right.

It's like staring at a word you know how to spell for so long that you end up thinking you spelled cat wrong or something. :D