Compound Words and Plurals

Introducing guest columnist Prof. J.A. Crankypants

Professor J.A. Crankypants is an alter ego, born in the days with too many student essays to grade, and not enough M&Ms to get the job done. Some semesters, there were two or three sets of papers, for two or three classes with 20-25 students in each class. Doing the math… carry the 4… it was a lot of grading. Some nights, she pushed through by allowing herself two or three M&Ms between papers. If they were peanut, at least there was some protein involved.

There were also triumphant moments—good papers by shaky students who had had a breakthrough. Many days, she left the classroom thinking, “I just taught the shit out of that class!”

Some days, the thought was “why? why? why?”

For nearly 25 years, the career path went from teaching first-year college composition, editing a mix of professional and amateur writing for a membership magazine, and then moonlighting as a non-credit creative writing instructor.

After retiring from teaching in 2016 (2017?), Prof. CP was briefly a curmudgeonly copyeditor in a tiny cubicle, muttering under her breath about commas and passive voice.

From time to time, Prof. Crankypants will offer some stories from the classroom and probably go off on a tangent, as she does in this first offering. —JAC

Greetings, gentle readers. I have been reading a lot lately, doing some writing, and listening to podcasts. Something came up that rubs me the wrong way, and I’m here to help.

Consider these phrases:

• Submarine sandwiches

• Laptop computers

• Library books

• Broadway musicals

All of these are 1) made up of two nouns, and 2) in the standard plural form using -s or -es at the end. They are called compound words. Used in a sentence, Hilary had 15 submarine sandwiches, 24 laptop computers, 14 library books about Broadway musicals.

Native English speakers have zero problem making these items plural, in verbal form and usually in written.

Two nouns often together form a compound word, and in fact, the first noun acts as an adjective to qualify, specify or intensify the second noun.

These are not just any sandwiches—they are submarine sandwiches! Mmmmm!

The show is way more than the eighth grade production of The Music Man, no, it's a Broadway musical. Separated, they are a street or a district of theaters and a type of performance.

The AP Style book in the entry for plurals states that compound words that are closed or solid, i.e., one word, take an -s at the end: tablespoonfuls, handfuls. Fair enough. Seems simple.

Where we start to run into trouble is if the phrase remains two words, separated by a hyphens or a space. But for native speakers, again, it’s usually easy to do. The last word takes the plural form, right?

• messenger bags

• potato chips

• construction plans

So tell me why am I hearing the following so much lately?

• point of views

• daughter-in-laws

• passer-bys

• president-elects

Those are all incorrect. The correct expressions are:

• points of view

• daughters-in-law

• passers-by

• presidents-elect

AP Stylebook adds these to the mix to show you don't always need a hyphen:

• adjutants general

• attorneys general

• postmasters general

• chiefs of staff

The AP rule states that in a two-word compound noun, the plural form is formed on the significant word in the pair.

In "submarine sandwiches,” sandwich is pluralized. It's the significant word; otherwise, you would have an underwater sea vessel and a sandwich.

I'm sure you can think of examples to test this and show me that I'm wrong wrong wrong. I'm not, but I fully admit there are some weirdnesses in English. They call them non-standard forms or exceptions. Non-native learners of English have to memorize not just the rules but the exceptions too.

But they do learn the rules, and if they are extremely fluent, they don’t make mistakes like “passer-bys.”

Note: the AP Stylebook says that if your compound noun, or any other word, doesn’t conform to these examples, then you should defer to the way the Merriam-Webster New World College Dictionary has the plurals listed.

Plural Surnames and Proper Nouns

While I’m on the subject, and while you are addressing your holiday cards (‘tis the season), I’ll review the rules for plurals of proper names. If the proper name ends in z or s or es, add -es. Yes, that means it is The Joneses, The Charleses, or The Shabazes.

For most names ending in y, add -s. The Griffeys, The Hickeys, The Meaneys.

For other endings, add -s. The Obamas, The Carters, The Clintons.

“But what about George W. and Laura? How do I address their card?” The Bushes. Why? It’s not covered in the above rule from the AP Stylebook, but I expect it can fall under the rule for pluralizing lowercase-b bush, which is bushes because it ends in -sh.

And then, what about The Coxes? Or is it The Coxs? Again, lowercase-x as in fox takes -es. It doesn’t matter, though—I’ll open your holiday card however you address it. (The address is at the bottom of your email, I do believe. Hint, hint.)

One could fall down the rabbit hole trying to find exceptions to the rule, or cases where I am wrong. I invite you to do just that. Join me here in the rabbit hole, and let’s discuss forums, syllabuses, donkeys and cities.

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