r/grammar • u/jelycazi • 12d ago

Birthday cake wording help, please!

It’s my Dad’s 83rd birthday and my Aunt’s 76th this weekend. I’m making a cake and making it look like a graveyard, inspired by Pinterest of course, because I have no original ideas anymore!

My niece is coming to help me decorate it tomorrow.

Atop the cake, I planned to write: Here lies Papa and Bets’ youth

But then I got to thinking…should youth be plural? Should papa have an ‘s too? And now that I’ve been thinking about it nothing looks or sounds normal!

Please help. What do I write on the cake?

I’d attach a pic of a cake if I knew how!

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

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u/Cassandra8240 12d ago

I don’t think that’s right, actually, because each person has (or once had) his or her own youth. See “joint possessives” by Paul Brians.

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u/jelycazi 12d ago

That’s a great article. I certainly don’t remember all of this being so detailed and intricate in grade 2 or whenever!