I’m working on a new tutorial and was wondering what is the most accepted plural for box (as in *nix box, Windows XP box, BeOS box). Do you use boxes or boxen? Feel free to move this to another board, I’m not sure where this question fits in.
Printable View
I’m working on a new tutorial and was wondering what is the most accepted plural for box (as in *nix box, Windows XP box, BeOS box). Do you use boxes or boxen? Feel free to move this to another board, I’m not sure where this question fits in.
Box's
Boxen is German for boxing.
Actually.. from Dictionary.com
I would think either would be acceptable but probably to avoid some confusion for those who have never or rarely seen "boxen" I'd use boxes.Quote:
box
<computer> 1. A computer; especially in the construction "foo box" where foo is some functional qualifier, like "graphics", or the name of an operating system (thus, "Unix box", "MS-DOS box", etc.) "We preprocess the data on Unix boxes before handing it up to the mainframe." The plural "boxen" is sometimes seen.
And just to be nit-picky, "box's" is the possessive contraction, which would suggest the box owns something, e.g., the box's top. Boxes is the common plural although as shown above, boxen could also be used.
wouldn't box's simply be the possessive case?
you aren't contracting anything.
box - singular
the box's top - singular possessive
the boxes' tops - plural possessive
the boxes, or boxen (ox and oxen?) - plural
the boxz - leet plural
the b0xerz - uberleet singular and plural possessive (or not).
What she means is that when saying box's you are saying that the boxes have ownership of something. Though that is interesting.
It would more matter on the context that it is used in.
I have 10 box's.
I have 10 boxes. The first one is correct.
Though to be honest I always assumed, but never checked that box's was it's own plural. I would just as soon say that boxes' or however it would be is correct also.
Eh?!
Quote:
Inflected Form(s): plural box or box·es
The first one is not the correct plural reference. The 2nd one is. (V)/\>< has it entirely correct for both singular and plural possessive formats.Quote:
I have 10 box's.
I have 10 boxes. The first one is correct.
Very true. I was thinking in the sense of "it's" (a contraction of it and is) when it should have been simply possessive singular or plural.Quote:
you aren't contracting anything.
Sorry guys.
Box's boxes. The little dotty thing was just to replace the e, in my post.