Plural Form/Apostrophe S for Greek letters
 

Hey folks.....I know that the proper way to pluralize Greek letters is to just add an S, no apostrophe:

Alphas
Deltas
Kappas
Ques/Omegas

etc....

But HOW COME it looks so funny when it's a Greek letter ending in I?

Pi Chis
Alpha Phis
Xis
Rho Chis

Is it just me? Am I doing something wrong?

What's even worse is the when something belongs to ALL Phi Mus or Alpha Phis or Omegas and it becomes Omegas's (or isn't it supposed to be Omegas'?)

It just sounds funny saying it...almost like "Oh look at those Phi Museses cute shirts!"

And this is why I'm not an English major!

An apostrophe shows possession. An s (no apostrophe) added to the end of a word usually creates a plural.

If it is a singular possessive, like if one Phi Mu has a cute shirt, you would write, "Look at that Phi Mu's cute shirt." You wouldn't say that Phi Mus's shirt, because there's only ONE person that you're writing about.

If Delta Zeta has a cute bid day shirt and all their members are wearing it, you would write, "Look at the Delta Zetas' cute shirts." You add the s to the end of Delta Zeta to make it plural. Then you add the apostrophe to make it possessive.

How is it that you all got through high school and into college without understanding the difference between plural and possessive? :confused:

'=plural?
 

since when did an apostrophe infer plural? It was, at least,
'way back when, to indicate possession.
What kind of English is being taught/learned today?

It doesn't. That's what I said above.

I fully understand the DIFFERENCE between plural and possessive.

I write books.

My QUESTION was why does the plural of Greek letters ending in I (and U) look funny?

Well what I was saying, which was implied when I said
I was talking about when things LOOK funny and then I said it SOUNDS funny to say it when something is PLURAL AND POSSESSIVE.

Actually, it doesn't sound funny though. If it sounds funny then you are using it incorrectly. If you're using plural and possessive, you wouldn't say "Phi Museses" it would still be Phi Mus'. Sounds just the same as saying Phi Mus or Phi Mu's. And you wouldn't say Omegas's. You would say Omegas'. Get it?

Oh, I'm so sorry you think my knowledge is below you. Apparently it seems you think the same about my humor.

I'm not an idiot. I have the common sense, grades, full ride AND test scores to prove it. I was just trying to make a joke. If calling me out seems to make you feel better, proceed.

Get a grip. Don't you think you're overreacting just a *tiny* bit? I certainly never said that I thought you were "beneath" me. In the immortal words of Charlie Brown, "Good grief."

why is it that the grammar threads always get ugly?

Maybe she is, maybe she isn't, but you've been condescending since your first post.

Had I only known!!!!!! :(

I'm sorry Senusret....didn't mean to ruin the thread :o :(

Is Greek similar with Latin? So for instance, plural Pi Phi would be Pi Phii (double "i") and such (like in "alumnus" becomes "alumni", "alumna" becomes "alumnae"). But this doesn't make sense, since then everything else would sound so weird. Plural Alpha Tau Omega = Alpha Tau Omege? :confused:

NEVER MIND ... just a theory :p

That doesn't work, because in Latin the "i" is the plural for nouns ending in "us" and "a" is the plural for nouns ending in "um."

But - if "Phi" could be converted as a singular or plural to "Phum," and we merge this thread with the pronunciation thread, we could have some combination of "Phee Phie [Pho? or Phoe?] Phum," which might make everyone happy.

If that were true, would something like "we Pi Phis" become similar to Pi Phiimus?? Or "those Pi Phis" would be Pi Phiirunt?? or Phirunt??? :confused: :confused:

Yikes! Time to search around my brain for those 5 years of Latin I had! Forget I even tried.....sigh...

Goodness... I think Senusret was just trying to be funny! No reason to freak out!

I don't think so. I was just pointing out the difference between the plural and possessive form since the other person who answered you seemed not to understand. I'm very sorry if you had a problem with the way I answered the post. I most definitely did not mean to hurt her feelings or yours. I thought that her last post was extremely defensive and I don't really understand where that was coming from. There are so many more important things to get worked up over. Then again, it is impossible to tell the tone or expression of a post on the internet, so perhaps she took my answer the wrong way.

I teach English grammar and creative writing, and I have a Master's in English language arts. I am also a published author. AND.... If you REALLY want to go back to test scores, I made a perfect score of 36 on the reading and grammar sections of the ACT about 11 years ago when I took the darn thing, got a scholarship to undergrad and a fellowship to grad school, and I finished with a 4.0.
:confused:I didn't realize we needed to post our credentials here. I thought that all I did was answer the poster's question and try to clarify something that she was confused about. You would be shocked at the number of people who really are in college now and haven't a clue about the difference between plural and possessive nouns. I suspect that some of them may read this board, but certainly neither of you two are among them. Again, I am very sorry. Please accept my apology.

Now I remember why I don't read this board or post very often any more. :( I'll check back in a month or two.

See you in two months!

I remember reading somewhere that if a word is foreign, then you're supposed to put an apostrophe to pluralize it. I don't know if that also follows for foreign alphabets or just full words, but if that were the case, then Alpha would turn into Alpha's and so on.

Gotta agree with this.

Seems to happen a lot from people with these kinds of degrees, etc. blah blah blah in these threads.

IT'S FREAKIN GRAMMAR, PEOPLE, CHILL THE HELL OUT! And leave the condescending attitudes at the door.

Two things I love:

1)When people announce they're leaving the board (they usually come back in 5 minutes)

2)When threads like this get out of control.


Too funny.

Re: Plural Form/Apostrophe S for Greek letters
 

Oh for goodness sake people! They guy asked a question and everyone went off on one.

Senusret I, to answer your question , it's just you. As far as I can tell, you haven't done anything wrong. Because there aren't that many English words which end with the letter "I", I would guess that this is the reason it looks funny to you. That is, the combination seems unfamiliar to your mind.

.....Kelly :)

The Alpha Chi Rhos said to us once, "Lets go over to you're house and eat alot of pizza's."

tOo FuNnY!!*<---- :-)

Re: Re: Plural Form/Apostrophe S for Greek letters
 

LOLOLOLOLOL!!!! That was funny to me.


Well, thanks! Much appreciated.

Just a couple of points of clarification in defense of my sister:

#1) She did not say she was leaving the board. She said she was going to go back to only posting every couple of months.

#2) She's only posted a grand total of 11 times in the last 3 months - 5 of which were posts to this thread. (Yeah, I went and counted....so sue me.) There were no posts from her at all in October or November. Soooooo..... she's not being silly or hypocritical as you imply, she's being perfectly consistant with her statement.

.....Kelly :)

I agree with Kelly that it is just you, but that may be because I am always reading and writing Phis or Phi's and I have stopped seeing it as odd.

those's fight'n words!

(how's my grammar?? :p)

One thing I love:

1) Collin.