Oh no BBC, not you as well

[OutOfApricots]

There's an article about the Royal family on the BBC website, and in that article is the sentence:

'Competitive sister-in-laws.'

Oh dear me.

That’s bad!!!

Had to edit, as I made a mistake!!!

I don’t get it

😮

Sisters-in-law

Oh I see it now lol

It should be "sisters-in-law"

Just musing, but what’s the plural of ‘print-out’ (as a noun)? ‘Print-outs’ or prints-out’?

I disagree - otherwise "in-laws" wouldn't be a thing. "I love my in-laws."

Sometimes usage is the rule.

Print-outs.

That’s what I would say and write. But it doesn’t follow the logic of ‘sisters-in-law’ or ‘Lords Lieutenant’.

My in-laws" is grammatically correct as a plural noun to refer to your relatives by marriage, particularly your spouse's parents.

For more specific relatives, pluralize the primary noun, not the "law". For example, use brothers-in-law or sisters-in-law rather than "brother-in-laws" or "sister-in-laws"

the noun takes the plural.

Muphry's Law strikes again!

🤣🤣

(I realise I did not capitalise that sentence.)

The plural of Lord Lieutenant is Lord- Lieutenants

Yes it does. The output is the part that is plural. You are counting the number of pieces of paper.

I beg to differ. It’s like the plural of Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. That’s obviously ‘Lords’ not ‘Ordinarys’.

That doesn’t make any difference. The only logic is whether a ‘sister-in-law’ is itself a noun, in which case it should be ‘-laws’. If the noun is ‘sister’ and ‘-in-law’ acts as an adjective then ‘sisters’.

Same with print-out.

It’s very confusing!! The rules change depending on what sort of noun is being used.

I think this is because whereas -in-law is modifying the noun sister, print-out is a noun derived from the phrase to print out. No noun in that phrase. So in both cases you’re sticking the plural ending the noun.

So true! I rather like the plural weirdness - and the unpredictability of English in general.

I tend to agree. But it’s as much about accepted usage as anything.

That's because the important part is the job/noun - Lieutenant - not the person they are doing it for (the Monarch). For sisters-in-law, the important part is the relationship - sisters - which is then modified to clarify that it's through marriage.