English Language & Usage Asked by P. Campese on August 5, 2020
Why is it that men’s eyes always drift toward females?
I mean, "men" is the plural form of "man". So it’s "mens’"… but it looks very strange, and maybe this only applies if the word doesn’t change in plural form?
For example, if it had been "one man" and "several mans", it would’ve been "several mans’ eyes", but now that it’s "men", "several men’s eyes" is how you type it?
Is that the rule? Have I understood this correctly?
You are referring to the eyes of men (plural), so the apostrophe follows the "n".
Answered by John Davison on August 5, 2020
The short answer is: "men's" is correct.
Let's look at a few different examples to see why.
First, let's look at a word for which you add an "-s" to make it plural.
"One dog" changes to "two dogs."
If we wanted to say that a bone belonged to a single dog, we would say: "The bone is the dog's."
If we wanted to say that a bone belonged to two dogs, we would not say: "the bone is the dogs's." Instead, we would say: "the bone is the dogs.'"
Now, let's look at a word that doesn't become plural by adding an "-s."
"One man" changes to "two men."
If we wanted to say that a car belonged to one man, we would say: "the car is the man's."
If we wanted to say that a car belonged to two men, we would not say: "the car is the mens.'" This would mean that there were multiple "mens," which isn't possible because "men" is already plural. This only works in the example with "dog" and "dogs" because you can have multiple "dogs."
Instead, we would say: "the car is the men's."
I suggest that you read THIS page about apostrophes to see how they are used to form possessives (go to the section titled "Possessives").
Answered by John B. on August 5, 2020
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