Which would you use: "The Matthews' home" or "The Matthewses' home"?

[notunique]

I guess what I really want to know is whether Matthewses is the right word for the plural of the Matthews.

The second doesn't look quite right. Even my friends who have surnames ending with an s would go for the former.

Is the plural form of Matthews "Matthewses" though? That doesn't look right to me at all.

I would say the Matthews's home. I posted something on pedants' corner a while ago about Bates. It was decided that Bates's or Bates' is equally acceptable.

Well, I still don't have a confident answer from anyone on this conundrum.

However, MIL being a former English teacher and with an English teaching degree says Richardses would be the plural of Richards so Richardses' would be the possessive form.

Even then, there may be some exceptions to the rule!

Well, I suppose if you say the Joneses, you would say the Matthewses, so plural possessive would be Matthewses' - as you said before.

However, I would never ever have a reason to write that down, as I don't refer to people by their surname. I would say "Tom & Barbara's home"

I think you don't put an extra s on the end of a name that finishes with s. Matthews' is right imho.

I would certainly use that anyway - in my opinion if unsure it is best to use the most elegant and un-clumsy choice. Matthewses is about as far from elegant as you can get

but as someone said earlier, re-phrase to "the home of Mr and Mrs Matthews" or something!

Slowreadingprogress The es at the end of Matthewses indicates the plural form which would follow the rule of adding es to nouns which end with an s such as buses, princesses, kisses etc. So Matthewses would follow that rule elegant or not.

Should be the instead of The.

Hmm...I can't like it though

on just a very few things grammar-wise I would rather be wrong and have it look right

What about the name Jess for instance? Or Tess?

Would it be Tesses/Jesses?

or not, because they are only one and not plural?

Matthews natch. Because Matthewses sounds ridiculous

Think of it like this: Matthew's book = the book that belongs to a person called Matthew.

Matthews' house = the house that belongs to people called Matthews.

It would be Jesses and Tesses if there were more than one of them. If there was only one Jess (or Tess) then it would be Jess's or Tess's house or whatever.

PrincessFiorimonde - in this instant that isn't right.
Matthews' doesn't pluralize it as it ends in s - which is the nub of the problem,so there'd only be one Matthews living there and, apparently, there isn't. Matthewses' home indicates plural and possession.

Matthews'

Thanks, Campion, I now can't sleep for worrying over which usage is correct.

Can't find this point in Judith Butcher's book on copy-editing

So after thoroughly confusing myself whilst reading through this thread, has it been categorically decided whether we are at the Matthews' or the matthewses?

I'm in team campion!

But you don't use 's when a word ends with s do you, so it wouldn't be Jess's or Tess's, but Jess' and Tess'?

Gawd I hope you resolve this soon...

Washer we haven't used 's at the end of of a noun ending with an s. We have used es'.
By the way, you can use 's at the end of a noun ending with an s though this is not obligatary.

See my post on Tue 27-Oct-09 21:18:01 for plural forms of nouns ending with an s.

Oops... sorry, Princess. Are you sure it wasn't a pea under your mattress causing the trouble?

notunique - I'm a bit baffled as to why this is causing so much trouble .

United we stand

Campion - no, it was the wretched necklace

And I just think Matthewses' looks odd. Even though I know it is perfectly logical.

IMHO the first Matthews' is ideal.

Matthewses' is wrong, it would be Matthews's.

first one