Getting on my goat

Posted by Dan on 29th June, 2007

Miss Q from McScotchville writes:

‘Dear GrammarBloggers,

In purchasing cheese derived from the milk of a goat, I want to make sure I buy the most ideologically sound brand. I have seen “goats cheese”, “goat’s cheese” and “goats’ cheese” in my local middle-class deli.

Is it the case that there should be no apostrophe because it doesn’t actually belong to the goat/s, it just comes from the goat/s?

For which should I plump?’.

All suggestions are as welcome as cheese to a Barnsley-supporting man from Wakefield (are in-jokes strictly a good way to provoke interest in a Blog?)

Permalink

3 Comments »

“Goats cheese” has no apostrophe - I’d like to assume some sort of origin for the curdled milk. That’s out.

To my mind Miss Q ought to purchase “goats’ cheese”. I think we must assume a plurality of source milk. To not do so puts quite a lot of pressure on one goat, doesn’t it? Thus, if the source of milk is more than one goat, we must choose the plural possessive.

Comment by Paul — 29th June, 2007 @ 5:06 pm
Interesting conundrum, Miss Q, and by the way thanks for getting in touch.

My thoughts are as follows:

1) Even though the milk no longer “belongs” to the goat it is still milk of goat and requires a possessive apostrophe.

2) Unless that bottle contains milk from one particular goat, I think a plural is required.

Therefore please only buy milk labelled as “Goats’ Milk”.

P.S. Please send all future queries to GrammarBlog@googlemail.com

Comment by Gez — 29th June, 2007 @ 5:18 pm
From my point of view, I think that the plural form is correct for another reason. We should not be talking literally when we say “goat’s cheese”; rather, we’re referring more abstractly to a food produced by a species, in this case ‘goats’.

In that sense, I would also accept ‘goat cheese’, which for some reason seems less appetising. Possibly because it insinuates that the cheese is actually made from goat(s).

Comment by Tom — 29th June, 2007 @ 6:47 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Talk to us

If you want to tell us your pet peeves, send us examples of grammar abuse you have witnessed or even ask our advice on grammar matters, we'd love to hear from you. Email us on grammarblog@googlemail.com

Ads by Google

Twitter

Flickr

From More Worser Grammar

GrammarBlog