Plural form of "Son-in-law"

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Words that are pluralized in the middle?

I've heard it pronounced both ways:

Sons-in-law

and

Son-in-laws

While one may be more technically correct than the other, are they both equally acceptable based on popular usage?

See also Plural of "daughter in law", which has been closed as duplicate of the first question I reported. — apaderno, Jun 27 '11 at 19:08

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 21 '12 at 17:01

4

"Sons-in-law" is proper. Think of the hyphenated suffix "-in-law" as an adjective, which was its original purpose. It would be equivalent to "partners in crime".

edited Feb 21 '12 at 17:01

TRiG

6,487

answered Jun 27 '11 at 19:12

KeithS

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Note that the -possessive- does follow the somewhat illogical 'add the 's' to the very end", e.g. "son-in-law's". – Mitch Feb 21 '12 at 17:57

Plural form of "Son-in-law"

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