Category talk:Children's television programmes

Proposed move to Childrens' television programmes[edit]

Does anyone object if I change the name of the category to Category:Childrens' television programmes as this is a little better grammar, being as we are referring to any number of children. Mtaylor848 (talk) 10:39, 25 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's a plurale tantum. Children's is correct, not childrens'. "Children" is already considered as plural, without the "s". Andy Dingley (talk) 11:30, 25 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose move. "Children's" is the correct plural possessive form of "child" in English. An apostrophe without a following "s" is not a direct result of a plural; it is the result of a word already ending in "s", and is done to avoid writing "s's" when the sound is only pronounced once. Thus 1 cat's and 2 cats', but 1 sheep's and 2 sheep's and men's and women's. See Apostrophe (’) on Oxford Dictionaries Online. If you want to see all the twists and turns that cause an "s" to appear or not appear after an apsotrophe, see the entry for "possessives" in Garner, Bryan A. (13 January 2000) "XX" in The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style, Oxford University Press, pp. 261−264 ISBN: 9780195135084. --Closeapple (talk) 16:31, 25 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]