Quick grammar question

a

Will's

(We should abolish the apostrophe.)

Will’s knife.

Although I predict 5 pages, a ban and an stw flounce.

chatGPT: The correct option would be "a. Will’s Knife." It indicates possession by a single person, in this case, your godson Will.

I like how chatgpt slightly passive aggressively corrected your “god son” to “godson”. I simply pasted your post into it.

a)

but I agree with johnx2, apostrophes cause more confusion than clarification so we should get rid of them.

Nah. Correct use of the apostrophe is the different between knowing your shit and knowing you're shit...

c) Will's knife?

Just change the text to "This knife belongs to Will" 🤣

a

a

Small k as well

a

but I agree with johnx2, apostrophes cause more confusion than clarification so we should get rid of them.

You would have to get rid of contractions too:

Your round/ you're round

Etc.

a

But I would just engrave it with:

Will

It seems a bit strange to have the item/noun also included in the engraving.

Do his parents write "Will's shorts", "Will's t-shirt", "Will's left sock" and "Will's right sock" in his P.E. kit?

Welsh "cyllell ewyllys". Maybe 🤔

The Welsh language gets my vote if apostrophes aren't used👍

a. Will's knife.

I'm finding that the French have an uneasy relationship with the apostrophe. Because French doesn't have Will's knife, it has the knife of will, it doesn't really know what to do with apostrophes, so you end up with all manner of grocer's apostrophes. Ironically, I just had to look up whether it was grocers' or grocer's... The internet seems to think that it's the apostrophe of just one grocer, though that seems wrong. Unless grocerkind is being treated as a giant, vegetable-selling entity...

I want to personalise a Swiss Army knife for my god son. His name is Will

Is it…..

a. Will’s Knife

or

b. Wills’ Knife

Doesn't it depend how posh the godson is?

'This is Will's knife. There are many like it, but this one is Will's.' 

Quite small. 

"You call that a knife?"

c) Will’s knife?

Agreed, the knife belongs to a singular Will and a knife is a noun, not a proper noun.

Will’s knife

Edit, although, does the belonging make it a proper noun? (Ie, it’s a river, but it’s a River Thames). So it’s a knife, but it’s a knife that belongs to Will so it’s Will’s Knife? Probably wrong but can’t decide!

Have gone with c. 

Thanks everyone

I understand the point Pyro, but 'knowing your shit' and 'knowing youre shit' still works if we lose the apostrophe.

Maybe now that AI can check everything it will all work out.

Nah. Correct use of the apostrophe is the different between knowing your shit and knowing you’re shit…<br /><br />

Damn right!

Just be thankful that it’s not in Navaho…

The apostrophe here denotes possession. So "Will's knife" is the knife belonging to Will. "Wills' knife" is the knife belonging to Wills. How many godsons named Will do you have? 😁

I'm with peekay here though. Is it necessary to have "knife," is anyone going to pick it up and wonder "what is this strange device?" How about "Will 2023" or some such?

(It's a bad present anyway, people always say "fire at Will" and he'll be bringing a knife to a gun fight... )

Not sure why you need to have 'knife' on it, kind of obvious what it is. So it would then just be a simple WILL, as nothing else, no apostrophes etc needed.

Will is his name, identifying the owner of said knife.

I got my nephews the Swiss mini champ for their 16th's. Small enough to go on the keyring, but loaded with enough gadgets of the right size to not be illegal and do what they're needed for.

I may be wrong but I think all SAKs are legal carry in the UK?

I used to carry a knife as a teenager, it was less 'thug' and more that my grandad carried one and hero worship. It was a large-ish lock knife which lived in the inside pocket of my denim jacket. I'd probably be looking at jail time today.

Go with "Will knife" just to keep his intentions ambiguous.

Some fun suggestions here. And it would be “Will’s knife”. But, as has been said, it is obvious it is a knife. Perhaps for some amusing courtroom disambiguation you could have it engraved “Will’s teacup”? Though the mangling of some of the chat text could offer “God’s son 2023”?

Also, if it ends up stuck somewhere inappropriate by someone else would it be better to have it marked “Not Will’s knife, nope, never seen it before officer”?

Naef blong Will

I wish to ****ing god people would stop using chatgpt as a source. All sorts of news media and social networks are plagued with bots and on a forum where we reliably have actually humans conversing it really grates to have bots by proxy in more and more threads.

Anyway..... Knives are so noughties. Its 'Will's EDC' obvs.

The "k" needs to be capitalised as it is a real noun when combined with "Swiss Army"...

Those who need to be ready for anything take one of these with them everywhere. Since 1897, the Swiss Army Knife has been a trusted tool of adventurers around the world. Whether you’re exploring the city, the ocean, the mountains or even space, the Swiss Army Knife is the companion you can count on.

I understand the point Pyro, but ‘knowing your shit’ and ‘knowing youre shit’ still works if we lose the apostrophe.

How about "well shit" and "we'll shit"?

Surely it should have its own name?

Glamdring, Gurthang, Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi that sort of thing?

Just remember the apostrophe indicates that letters have been missed out. Originally the phrase would have been ‘Will his knife’.

H’T’H’

oops..wrong image...

William’s fake spear

this nief iz wills

Will's Swish Harmy Knife

Wullie’s chib

Correct use of the apostrophe is the different between knowing your shit and knowing you’re shit…

Indeed, and correct use of capitals is the different(sic) between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.

Correct use of the apostrophe is the different between knowing your shit and knowing you’re shit…

Do you really need an apostrophe to know this 🤔😁

How about “well shit” and “we’ll shit”?

lol. Sometimes you need context. Maybe the Who did live in Leeds? I guess I could have proposed simply losing the apostrophe to denote possession. That's unarguable. But yeah let's lose it altogether. 

The way it was explained to me was what you are actually doing is shortening the phase "Will his knife". The apostrophe replaces the missing letters ("hi")

The way it was explained to me was what you are actually doing is shortening the phase “Will his knife”. The apostrophe replaces the missing letters (“hi”)

How does that work for the plural version? As in: the brothers' knives...

The way it was explained to me was what you are actually doing is shortening the phase “Will his knife”. The apostrophe replaces the missing letters (“hi”)

Will his knife what?