Grammar question

Man of Honour
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'London's' is correct.

'Londons' is meaningless in any normal context. How would you have a plural London?

There is London Ontario, and London Ohio, if you were referring to those and the one in U.K., you’d say “3 Londons.”
When I was driving a Black Cab, we referred to ourselves as London’s finest, cops in NYC are called New York’s finest.
 
Man of Honour
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still confused......

Apostrophes in English mean one of two things:

1) Possession or association, which you now understand

so the first one means like London's finest gangster...

or London's finest wine

"London's finest" without anything else is arguably incorrect because it's lacking the subject, but would usually be interpreted in context (e.g. if you're talking about parks, it'll be London's finest parks).

2) Deliberately missing letters, e.g. can't is actually can not - the apostrophe indicates that letters (in this case, a space,n and o) are deliberately missing. This usage is more complicated because it's based on common usage.

I got that bit but still not sure about 2nd one.

Adding an 's' to a word without an apostrophe makes it plural (although, of course, not all words are pluralised that way). So "Londons" means "more than one London" and in that context "finest" doesn't make much sense. It could be interpreted as "the finest <whatever the context is> in all of the places called "London" in the world and I'm not sure about how to show possession with a plural that ends in s".

if I was putting this on to a t shirt which term is correct?!

"London's Finest". If the slogan is just that, then it's claiming that either the T-shirt or the person wearing it is the best in or from London, or at least amongst the best grouping in or from London. Is that your intended meaning?
 
Soldato
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Apostrophes in English mean one of two things:

1) Possession or association, which you now understand



"London's finest" without anything else is arguably incorrect because it's lacking the subject, but would usually be interpreted in context (e.g. if you're talking about parks, it'll be London's finest parks).

2) Deliberately missing letters, e.g. can't is actually can not - the apostrophe indicates that letters (in this case, a space,n and o) are deliberately missing. This usage is more complicated because it's based on common usage.



Adding an 's' to a word without an apostrophe makes it plural (although, of course, not all words are pluralised that way). So "Londons" means "more than one London" and in that context "finest" doesn't make much sense. It could be interpreted as "the finest <whatever the context is> in all of the places called "London" in the world and I'm not sure about how to show possession with a plural that ends in s".



"London's Finest". If the slogan is just that, then it's claiming that either the T-shirt or the person wearing it is the best in or from London, or at least amongst the best grouping in or from London. Is that your intended meaning?


Thanks for that yes

It's actually not about london but about another city where I have seen the incorrect slogo written on and wanted to challenge it.

I really believed it should be London's Finest with the 's on the end.

#looks like that way is the correct way.
 
Associate
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Even in that case you should indicate the possessive - either as "Londons' finest" or "Londons's finest" (there isn't a rule on which style to use but the double 's' looks awkward to me). "The finest of the Londons" dodges it.

What? I can think of even fewer ways to use 'Londons's' than 'Londons'. And also with plural possessives (and things ending in s) you tend to drop the additional letter, e.g. [James' house] (using [] as quotes get lots with apostrophes.)

So for possessives for plurals, e.g. [These countries' residents need to move] is the same if [countries'] was replaced by [Londons']. [These Londons' residents need to move] - means all the residents of all the different places called London need to move. The residents are the possession of the (plural) Londons.

Yay grammar.
 

TJM

TJM

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I was responding to the post immediately before mine, which was about how to refer to the finest from multiple places called London. “Londons’ finest”, “Londons’s finest” or avoiding that awkward looking construction entirely are the options.
 
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The only way I can make 'Londons finest' work is if 'Londons' (with an s) is a brand or company/persons name. In the same way that 'Walkers crisps' doesn't have an apostrophe.
 
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