6

Possible Duplicate:
What is the correct possessive for nouns ending in s?

"Please submit your and your parent(s)' federal tax returns." Is the possessive of "parent(s)'" correctly formatted in that sentence? I know the apostrophe comes before the "s" for just parent singular, and it would come after the "s" for parents plural, but what if I don't know if it is one or two parents, and therefore want to use the (s)?

herisson
  • 81,803
Derek
  • 61
  • 2
    How about: "Please submit your and your parents' (or parent's) federal tax returns." – Casey Chu Dec 19 '11 at 18:42
  • @Casey: Your bracketed case (parent's) would only be correct in the unlikely event that the writer knew he was addressing someone with only one parent submitting tax returns, but didn't wish to elaborate with your mother's or your father's. – FumbleFingers Dec 19 '11 at 18:57
  • 1
    @FumbleFingers: It's not a duplicate of that question at all. That question is about the plural of, say, "parents". This is about the plural of "parent(s)", which stands for two words "parent" and "parents". In fact, Derek shows in the second sentence that he already knows the answer to that question. – ShreevatsaR Dec 21 '11 at 02:51
  • 1
    @ShreevatsaR: Well, I had to pick a reason, is all. Let's face it - parent(s) is not a word by any definition, so it's pointless considering grammatically-correct inflections to it. I don't like the question. – FumbleFingers Dec 21 '11 at 03:31
  • @FumbleFingers: "I don't like the question" is not a valid reason for closing it. :-) (And you seem to have misled others also into thinking it's a duplicate, unless they too had similar reasons.) BTW, if you want to say that "parent(s) is not a word by any definition, so it's pointless considering grammatically correct inflections to it", you can post that as an answer; it's a valid answer to the question. (Though I'll wonder what definitions, etc.) – ShreevatsaR Dec 21 '11 at 05:19
  • 1
    @ShreevatsaR: OP's question title makes it clear he wants a "grammatically-defensible" possessive form for the "non-word" parent(s). Neither answer so far even attempts to address that, IMHO because it's meaningless. You're just muddying the waters by implying that perhaps it is a "word". Maybe I should have specified "not constructive" or some other reason, but what difference would that make? You still seem to think it's a valid question for ELU, and I don't. – FumbleFingers Dec 21 '11 at 15:14
  • ...yesterday I got downvoted simply for posting a perfectly good answer to this question, which was closed straight after (I also voted to close it). So I don't feel like answering this "unwanted" question when I don't even have what I would call a meaningful answer, because it's not a meaningful question. – FumbleFingers Dec 21 '11 at 15:20
  • @FumbleFingers: I'm still not sure why you think it's not a word (not a spoken word, sure, but isn't it a written word?). In any case, my first comment above was just pointing out that it's not a duplicate, because it's not. The point wasn't to find fault with you (you're of course free to vote to close as you see fit), but to simply show... that it's a different question. :-) – ShreevatsaR Dec 21 '11 at 15:46
  • @ShreevatsaR: okay okay - I agree it's a different question, and obviously there aren't at least four other people voting with me to close this one, so presumably it will stand. But I don't really have any more to contribute to it. – FumbleFingers Dec 21 '11 at 20:36
  • @FumbleFingers: BTW, I asked a linguist who seems to think that "parent(s)" is an "orthographic word" (though of course not a spoken word). – ShreevatsaR Dec 25 '11 at 09:08

2 Answers2

6

I take it based on the content of the sentence you are not so worried about technical grammar, and more concerned about unambiguous communication. I think if you leave it the way you have it, the intent can only be interpreted correctly. That having been said, it is obviously not precisely right because omission of the (s) doesn't leave a grammatical remainder. If you want to be right without question (though a little stilted) use some thing like: "Please submit the federal tax returns of yourself and your parent(s)." or "...your tax return and that of your parent(s)." In the second last example, replacing 'of' with 'for' sounds a little better but is slightly less precise semantically.

ThePopMachine
  • 2,100
  • The last example fails if there are parents filing separately. – Ben Voigt Dec 19 '11 at 22:23
  • Yeah, yeah. You could use "...and those of your parent(s)", which is confusing for the common case, but is technically right because "those" would be interpreted as "all those" whether there are two or only one. – ThePopMachine Dec 23 '11 at 07:17
  • Outside of writers' groups which wish to homogenize their styles, the purpose of "grammatical rules" is to help people determine which methods of expression are likely to be understood correctly. Writing which most readers will correctly comprehend at a glance is generally to be preferred, even if it "breaks the rules", to writing which readers would have to struggle to decipher. – supercat Oct 23 '12 at 05:59
2

Perhaps

Please submit your individual and parental federal tax returns.
Ben Voigt
  • 2,809
  • This is not a natural expression. You are trying to circumlocute the original issue using an adjective. Fine in principle, but "parental" is not equivalent to "belonging to your parent(s)". If tax law required submission of a tax return for an individual, plus another one in one's capacity as a parent, that's what a "parental tax return" would be. – ThePopMachine Dec 23 '11 at 07:21