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Assume v. Presume

No. That's a possessive for more than one Sainsbury.
Or was that a poke at the grocers' apostrophe?

Anyway, Sainsbury's on its own makes absolutely no sense. WTF is it that belongs to Sainsbury? Or is the the ultimate epitome of the grocers' apostrophe?
 
Like it or not, the store is called "Sainsbury's" just as Tesco's stores are called "Tesco". It is common usage to express the plural verbally as "Tescos", and written it would be inappropriate to use an apostrophe (although one might consider adding an e: Tescoes).

'Today I went into several Tescos looking for a round tuit'

Substituting Sainsbury's in that sentence requires a written form that is grammatically plural but pronounces the same.

As the possessive (which "Sainsbury's" already is) for more than one Sainsbury, "Sainsburys'" is reasonably apt.
 
Why Sainsbury's and not Morrison's? The founders are John James Sainsbury (Sainsbury's) and William Morrison (Morrisons).
Tesco is a made-up name, T. E. Stockwell and Jack Cohen, if that is relevant.
Black Hole said:
Like it or not, the store is called "Sainsbury's"
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That's as good a reason as any.
Maybe more than one Sainsbury's should be Sainsburies' - possibly without a trailing apostrophe. :D
 
Morrisons call their stores "Morrisons" (no possessive apostrophe), so there's not so much to debate: Morrisons'.

I like "Sainsburies'" too.

"Sainsbury's'" seems clumsy.
 
A few examples from 'Your dictionary';
  • Remember when 4G cell phones were a new innovation?
  • The evening sunset was beautiful.
  • I need a new hot water heater.
  • Charlie proudly told his mom he made the hand-made scarf himself.
  • The careful, there is a lot of frozen ice on the road!
  • I know it’s true because I heard it with my own ears.
  • She always over-exaggerates.
  • In Rome, we saw dilapidated ruins.
  • Let’s order a hoagie sandwich.
  • Alice started her presentation with a short summary.
  • He is always making predictions about the future.
  • The school was in close proximity to the explosion.
  • The Gobi is a very dry desert.
  • In my opinion, I think he is wrong.
  • The storm hit at 2 p.m. in the afternoon.
  • The students will take turns, one after the other.
  • Having a drug test is a necessary requirement for the job.
  • They hiked to the summit at the top of the mountain.
  • I’m sorry to hear about your sad misfortune.
  • She was a dark-haired brunette.
  • The hotel room wasn’t great, but it was adequate enough.
  • I loved reading Sam’s autobiography of his own life.
 
What's wrong with that? It's a motorway and has a nomenclature of M5 in the same way as a road in Sussex has a nomenclature of A21.
The inclusion of the word 'motorway' removes any possible ambiguity between the M5 motorway and the BMW M5 motor car.
 
RobH1 said:
The evening sunset was beautiful.
Click to expand...
If you had listened to the audio commentary on the DVD of the 1970's Play for Today/TV series "Gangsters", you might question this one.
A sunset over Birmingham couldn't be filmed for some reason and so the production used a sunrise and passed it off as a sunset. A morning sunset?
 
EEPhil said:
What's wrong with that? They went to a conference at the top of a mountain. :D
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That's ludicrous. Senior politicians hiking up a mountain?
rofl.gif
 
Trev said:
What's wrong with that? It's a motorway and has a nomenclature of M5 in the same way as a road in Sussex has a nomenclature of A21.
Click to expand...
"There's been a crash on the M5". Do you need "motorway" or not? No, you don't.
Do you call the A21 the A21 A-road then? No you don't.
The inclusion of the word 'motorway' removes any possible ambiguity between the M5 motorway and the BMW M5 motor car.
Click to expand...
This is just ridiculous. You would never use it in an ambiguous context in the vast majority of cases. I would be hard pushed to find any example where you could confuse them.
 
I can see the need to clarify which roads are motorways and which are not due to the recent change to allow learner drivers onto them for professional tuition purposes. Will they be aware that the sections of road designated A1(M) are motorway or not? All too easy for us experienced drivers to assume this is ingrained common knowledge but I can see ignorant learners thinking it is OK to practise in their parent's car on these sections of road.
 
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