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I once spotted a magazine on the rack at a dive shop with an article on the cover that read something along the lines of... The Best Tropical Fishes.  It cracked me up because one, it seemed ironic that professionals of a given field, didn't know such a simple plural from within that field, and two, neither did the editor.

That said, it's absolutely, unequivocally, X-Box 360s.  It's the full name of the product, as Macskeebal says.

AAPL Shareholder wrote:

For example, let's pretend you have a lame generic name like Jim Smith. If you were standing next to someone else with the exact same name we'd refer to you two as "the Jims," "the Jim Smiths," or "the Smiths." 

But we'd never refer to the two of you as "the Jims Smith"

Actually, I would if both Jims were related, as in brothers.  For example, "The Brothers Grimm".

I do agree though that "Xbox 360" is the product name.

Fracai wrote:

AAPL Shareholder wrote:

For example, let's pretend you have a lame generic name like Jim Smith. If you were standing next to someone else with the exact same name we'd refer to you two as "the Jims," "the Jim Smiths," or "the Smiths." 

But we'd never refer to the two of you as "the Jims Smith"

Actually, I would if both Jims were related, as in brothers.  For example, "The Brothers Grimm".

Yeah but you still would call them the brothers Smith not the brothers Jim.

With Surgeon General, General is an adjective that describes the Surgeon.  The Surgeon General is in charge of the US Public Health Service or in other words a general Surgeon.  A Surgeon who is in charge of general health concerns.  I think an easier way to say it is that Surgeon relates the person, and General relates the title.

So you pluralize the noun: Surgeons General
Interestingly enough, you possessify the adjective: Surgeon General's office
I can only assume then that the plural possessive looks something like this: Surgeons General's office


And while it might seem awkward, I have no problem with "the brothers Jim".  More than one man named Jim who collectively are brothers of each other.  Brothers Jim or Brothers Smith both connotate the same meaning, although Jim is a bit more specific.


On another note, I think a great twisted/comedic story book would be "The Brothers Jimm"

petikas wrote:

1 Shark = Fish
10 Sharks = Fish

Sharks + Mullet Fish + Angel Fish = Fishes

Ah, the pluralular plural form.

kman wrote:

I think it depends which part of the name is the subject.  If the first word is an adjective, like in "Chocolate Milk", you'd pluralize the second. (chocolate milks)  If both words are nouns, then I guess you just pick which seems to be most the subject, like Beef Franks, or Brothers Grimm.

In the case of the Xbox, I think 360 is supposed to describe it somehow, so I'd say Xboxes 360 - or just leave out the 360 and say Xboxes.

A sometimes there isn't a hard rule for some grammar.

By your logic, GameBoys Advance, GameBoys Color, GameBoys Pocket, Playstations One, Playstations 2

360 in Xbox 360 is not a description of any kind. WTH is that suppose to describe anyway, what's so 360 about the new MS console? No, Xbox 360 is the entire name.

petikas wrote:

TheConfuzed1 wrote:

I once spotted a magazine on the rack at a dive shop with an article on the cover that read something along the lines of... The Best Tropical Fishes.  It cracked me up because one, it seemed ironic that professionals of a given field, didn't know such a simple plural from within that field, and two, neither did the editor.

That said, it's absolutely, unequivocally, X-Box 360s.  It's the full name of the product, as Macskeebal says.

1 Shark = Fish
10 Sharks = Fish

Sharks + Mullet Fish + Angel Fish = Fishes

Really?  I didn't know that.

Uhhhhhh,  no one I know is calling it the "Xbox 360".  They all call it "The Three Sixty"

So I think the plural should be "Wow no one in this whole fricken state has any Three Sixtys for sale."