Yes, you too can make plurals and possessives

[snopes]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/lan...606-story.html

Proper noun ending is “s”

(This is where it gets tricky.)

Snopes: one Snopes

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Very nice, snopes.

Seaboe

[Dr. Winston O'Boogie]

Unfortunately, they screwed up. It's not "Snopes", it's "snopes".

[erwins]

That depends on whether you are referring to the site or the person. Hint: the answers are right in front of you.

[WildaBeast]

But there's only one Snopes website, so I can't imagine any scenario where it would need to be plural. I guess that's true of the person, too, come to think of it. Now if you're referring to the family from Faulkner's novels then you can have more than one Snopes.

[erwins]

"New fact-checking sites are cropping up in many languages and countries; but how can we sort the Snopeses from the fakenews.coms?"

It would come up most often in figurative speech, (like above) but not exclusively. "How many Snopeses could one snopes run?" e.g. And then, of course, "How many could two snopeses run?"

[Don Enrico]

Originally Posted by snopes

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/lan...606-story.html

Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.

I agree that the new European law on data security has it's difficulties, but just breaking the internet doesn't look like a reasonable way of dealing with that to me.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Given that the OP is an article on plurals and possessives...

Its difficulties, Don Enrico. No apostrophe with it, as an apostrophe indicates a contraction of it is.

Seaboe

[Die Capacitrix]

Really long day. I was wondering why Seaboe wanted to put an apostrophe in difficulties.

[Don Enrico]

Originally Posted by Seaboe Muffinchucker

Given that the OP is an article on plurals and possessives...

Its difficulties, Don Enrico. No apostrophe with it, as an apostrophe indicates a contraction of it is.

Seaboe

Thats correct, of course! I would have loved to read more about that, but as I said earlier, I'm to European to be allowed to read the Baltimore Sun.

Otherwise, I maybe would have had a chance to understand what kind of contraction is indicated by the possessive 's in terms like "Trump's invinite wisdom".

[thorny locust]

The possessive apostrophe doesn't indicate a contraction at all. It just indicates a possessive. There's no contraction in the phrase you gave as an example.

The same punctuation mark is also used to indicate contractions, which is where the confusion comes in; especially in cases in which the same word is commonly used both for possessives and for contractions.

its = possessive, belongs to it. Doesn't need an apostrophe because it's a possessive on its own, just as his and hers are.

it's = contraction for "it is".

English is weird.

[ChasFink]

Originally Posted by Don Enrico

I'm to European to be allowed to read the Baltimore Sun.

That's "too European"!

[erwins]

I actually thought Don Enrico was having a bit of fun in that last post. I think his English is usually very good.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

His English is spectacular. Certainly much better than my French (I don't know German). While I know no one is accusing anyone of anything, I want to say that I don't tease foreigners who clearly struggle with English.

Seaboe

[ChasFink]

Just too bee clear, I agree that Don Enrico is quiet good at the english. I was just seasing the opportunity to have a bit of fun my self; no insult intended!

[Don Enrico]

You are so kind, many thanks!

Part of why my English is reasonably good is my daily conversation with you, my imaginary friends! That and reading English books and newspapers on a regular basis.

To think that when I started to lear English in grade 7 (having learned Latin for the last two years) I expected it do be another tedious subject full of learning vocabulary and grammar. Only when in grade 9 we had an exchance program with Tynecastle High School in Edinburgh, Scotland, and I realised that I was able to speak to people in a foreign country and be understood, and to find my way through the city on my own, visiting museums and sights, I understood what learning a language is about.

And just to make that clear: I knew that the possessive 's doesn't indicate a contraction, and was trying to make a joke in my post. I though my chosen example would be a hint. The to/too thing was an honest mistake, though.

And I appreciate when you point out mistakes in my English now and then, especially the very hideous ones. So, no hard feelings, and I'm not feeling teased.

[Hans Off]

Originally Posted by Don Enrico

I agree that the new European law on data security has it's difficulties, but just breaking the internet doesn't look like a reasonable way of dealing with that to me.

I think someone at the Baltimore Sun has panicked and severed the connection rather than risk a breach on what is in all probablility, absolutley fine and within GDPR regulations!

[Don Enrico]

The Baltimore Sun seems not to be alone in that reaction. There are news of other websites based outside of the EU shutting off European users, while bloggers within the EU are rather shutting down their blogs completly than dealing with possible consequenzes of violating European data protection laws.

[thorny locust]

Originally Posted by Don Enrico

And just to make that clear: I knew that the possessive 's doesn't indicate a contraction, and was trying to make a joke in my post. I though my chosen example would be a hint.

Whoops, sorry about that! -- but there are plenty of native English speakers who have trouble with "its" and "it's"; so I wouldn't be surprised, no matter how good somebody's English as a second language is, for them to find it confusing. It's confusing for everybody.

And yes, yours is very good. (And yes, I did assume your choice of example was a joke.)