Comments on: Getting on my goat

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:47:00 +0000

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).

By: Gez

Gez — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:18:00 +0000

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

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:06:00 +0000

“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.