Plural dos apelidos

Os Silvas e os tradutores

      Como a ignorância persiste, volto ao tema. «No one knows this better than author and clinical psychologist Bill Anthony. A third-generation napper, he and his wife, Camille, instilled in their family a healthy appreciation for napping. With grandchildren of their own, the Anthonys have now perpetuated the tradition into the fifth generation.» Como podem ver, até em inglês se pluralizam os apelidos — embora os tradutores não o saibam.

      Vejam então como é em inglês: «When a family name (a proper noun) is pluralized, we almost always simply add an “s.” So we go to visit the Smiths, the Kennedys, the Grays, etc. When a family name ends in s, x, ch, sh, or z, however, we form the plural by added -es, as in the Marches, the Joneses, the Maddoxes, the Bushes, the Rodriguezes. Do not form a family name plural by using an apostrophe; that device is reserved for creating possessive forms.
      When a proper noun ends in an “s” with a hard “z” sound, we don’t add any ending to form the plural: “The Chambers are coming to dinner” (not the Chamberses); “The Hodges used to live here” (not the Hodgeses). There are exceptions even to this: we say “The Joneses are coming over,” and we’d probably write “The Stevenses are coming, too.”»