Sorry to be pedantic, but I'm fed up with people referring to more than one Maserati as Maserati's. Maserati is a last name, so plural of Maserati is still Maserati. In reference to cars, as in units, it will be Maseratis. Hope you all enjoyed this ?
Otoh, Lotus owners are healthy (by necessity) and get lots of excersize from pushing their cars. Grammatical dilemmas is a small price to pay.
Maserati is an Italian family name. As such it does not change in Italian. Only for the English American to put an s for plural. Not the Italian. And it is Not plural. There were not an Alfredo Maserato and a Bindo Maserato collectively known as Fratelli Maserati. They were all Maserati. So Anglicism like the Bushes for the U.S. Presidential family. Known as the Bush in other countries. Except few languages that decline family names, like Polish.
Bira you're quite right. Personally I do not know anyone who owns 2 Talbot-Lagos (since we're on an Englsi forum here) but Talbot-Lagi would look and sound rather strange. Come to think about it, we do change geographical names to suit our own language, but the Hispano-Suiza does not become Espagna-Svizzera in Italian. Interesting thing, language. Best, Jack.
Tell it to Microsoft ... Their various spell checkers have been quite insistent about all of this. For many, many years they insisted that Maserati was misspelled and suggested it be replaced with macerate! It also used to insist on the apostrophe. In my latest version of MS Word(2007) it accepts Maserati just fine but if you suggest Maserati's it first suggests Macerates and then eventually Mascerate. I guess the relaunch of Maserati in 2002 helped somewhat but not completely ... Resistance is futile you will be assimilated. BORG! So go ahead and read these rules. I can make a case for the possessive as Maseratis' or Maserati's. Google Chrome likes both! You say tomato and I say tomota ... let's call the whole thing off ... Blame it on the Gershwin brothers ... [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ3fjQa5Hls[/ame] Grammar Rules for Possessive Nouns Five basic grammar rules cover the majority of instances where writers encounter possessive nouns. Rule #1: Making singular nouns possessive Add an apostrophe + s to most singular nouns and to plural nouns that do not end in s. Youll use this rule the most, so pay particular attention to it. English has some words that are plural but do not add an s. Words like children, sheep, women and men are such words. These plural words are treated as if they were singular words when making noun possessives. Examples: Singular nouns: kittens toy, Joes car, MLBs ruling Plurals not ending in s: womens dresses, sheeps pasture, childrens toys Rule #2: Making plural nouns possessive Add an apostrophe only to plural nouns that already end in s. You dont need to add an extra s to plural nouns that already end with the letter s. Simply tuck the apostrophe onto the end to indicate that the plural noun is now a plural possessive noun. Examples: Companies workers Horses stalls Countries armies Rule #3: Making hyphenated nouns and compound nouns plural Compound and hyphenated words can be tricky. Add the apostrophe + s to the end of the compound words or the last word in a hyphenated noun. Examples: My mother-in-laws recipe for meatloaf is my husbands favorite. The United States Post Offices stamps are available in rolls or in packets. Rule #4: Indicating possession when two nouns are joined together You may be writing about two people or two places or things that share possession of an object. If two nouns share ownership, indicate possession only once, and on the second noun. Add the apostrophe + s to the second noun only. Examples: Jack and Jills pail of water features prominently in the nursery rhyme. Abbot and Costellos comedy skit Whos On First is a classic act. Rule #5: Indicating possession when two nouns are joined, and ownership is separate This is the trickiest of all, but thankfully youll probably need this rule infrequently. When two nouns indicate ownership, but the ownership is separate, each noun gets the apostrophe + s. The examples below may help you understand exactly what this means. Example: Lucys and Rickys dressing rooms were painted pink and blue. (Each owns his or her own dressing room, and they are different rooms). Senator Obamas and Senator Clintons educations are outstanding. (Each senator owns his or her education, but they attained separate educations). Personal Pronouns Personal pronouns never use the apostrophe to show ownership. Personal pronouns are words like my, your, her, his, our, their and its. They already imply ownership within the word itself. Examples: Your cell phone is ringing. (Personal pronoun possessive) Robs cell phone is ringing. (Singular noun possessive) It and Its One of the biggest sources of confusion to writers is the difference between its and its. Normally the noun possessive is formed by adding apostrophe + s. However, we just mentioned that personal pronouns never take the apostrophe + s. It is a personal pronoun used to describe things. Its is a contraction between the words it is. Contractions are two words shortened into one. A good rule of thumb to check your own writing is to try to substitute the words it is every time you use its." If the sentence makes sense, youve used it correctly. If the sentence does not make sense, reach for the possessive case and use instead its.
a few years ago when I complained about improper punctuation. I don't understand how the educated people, here on FerrariChat, keep confusing "possessive" punctuation for "plurals" of a noun. So common of an error with real-estate signs ("Starting in the $190's") and referring to decades ("1980's"). Punctuated like that, the writer inadvertently referencing one year out of the ten that make-up that decade. Ferraris on the Avenue; The Ferrari's clutch needs bleeding. G.d. folks...it's not that complicated!
One may take into consideration that many contributors are not native english-speaking, myself included and no doubt often guilty as charged. Best, Jack.
