apostrophe of a plural noun

[mrs p]

Help! Can anyone tell me where to put the apostrophe in "sheep" plural? If I want to differentiate between one sheep's feeding time and that of a whole herd, is it the sheep's or the sheeps' feeding time?

[dot.hawkes]

well I think you would say ' It is sheep feeding time?' or time to feed the sheep.

[Lonnie]

Sorry mrs p, I belive there's no such word as 'Sheeps', I think you'll find dots terminology is the correct one.

[Clanad]

Hmmm... I find no reason not use sheep's to denote the singular or plural possiveness of a particular or group of animal's feeding time. I agree with Lonnie however, that the use of sheeps would be incorrect... For singular nouns, the noun is always followed by apostrophe s, and for for plural nouns that don�t end in s, the noun is also followed by apostrophe s. Examples are: sheep becomes sheep�s, women becomes women�s and children becomes children�s... in my opinion, which happens to agree with The English Language Institute of Deleware...

[robbo82]

If you really must use an apostrophe, it would be before the 's', in the same way as you'd say "the children's feeding time" or "the fish's feeding time".

[Peter Pedant]

yeah the rule is clear,

if the plural looks like a singular - that is doesnt end in 's'

then the genitive plural is 's

examples are men's, women's, children's, kindred'sand sheep's

as in a wolf in sheep's clothing,

and more than one wolf, would be

wolves in sheep's clothing

and you could spend hours argiugn whether sheep was singular or plural and whether clothing was plural, or a singular noun with plural meaning like army - collective moun.

[nathan2]

go to google and put in apostrophe in . you will find a good area. such as keeping up with the jones'. you wouldn't put the apostrophe between the e and s and you certainly wouldn't place it after the term jones ie joneses

[Narolines]

Sorry, nathan 2, but I don't quite follow what you're getting at. There is no apostrophe in "Keeping up with the Joneses" anyway...........

[kirstyjo]

Oh my God, now I feel extremely stupid. I thought I knew English Language; but apparently not! Anyone else over-awed?

Luv Kirsty

[mrs p]

I guess "sheep" follows the same rule as "children", so one sheep's head or two sheep's heads - you have to look at the word in context to know how many sheep.
Re the Jones lot: I'd say, "the Joneses are here" & "It's Mr Jones's", so extend for the plural and include an apostrophe for the possessive.
Thanks to everyone who suggested things.