[Grammar] BUSY BEE OR BUSY BEES

[htmeeks]

Good Morning:

Would it be more correct to say BUSY BEE GENERAL STORE or BUSY BEES GENERAL STORE? If BUSY BEES, Do you need a BEES or BEE'S ?


With All Best Wishes:



BUSY BEE

[susiedqq]

I'd say Busy Bee General Store because:

1. it's easier to say
2. 'busy as a bee" is the idiom being referenced.

But it really is up to you. If your name is Bea and you are declaring ownership, you could say, Busy Bea's General Store.

[htmeeks]

Good Afternoon:

Many Thanks for all your help. No, My name is not BEA, I am a retired Government Employee, & I have been called all kinds of Names.

This is a retirement venture for my wife and I. No Liquor or Lottery, just a small time Country Strore, out here in the Woods. I have a small vegetable plant production operation and a BEE pollination service. That is where the BEES come from.

One more Question....? If I decide on Country Boys General Store as an alternative.........Would you say BOYS or BOY's? I was "at sleepy time", 40 years ago in College!!!!!

With All Best Wishes:

BUSY BEE (TED)

[Searching for language]

Originally Posted by htmeeks

Good Afternoon:

Many Thanks for all your help. No, My name is not BEA, I am a retired Government Employee, & I have been called all kinds of Names.

This is a retirement venture for my wife and I. No Liquor or Lottery, just a small time Country Strore, out here in the Woods. I have a small vegetable plant production operation and a BEE pollination service. That is where the BEES come from.

One more Question....? If I decide on Country Boys General Store as an alternative.........Would you say BOYS or BOY's? I was "at sleepy time", 40 years ago in College!!!!!

With All Best Wishes:

BUSY BEE (TED)

If you and your wife are partners in the venture, then it should be the Busy Bees' Country Store. There are two of you, therefore the plural, and the apostrophe to indicate ownership of the store.

If you are alone in the venture, then calling it Country Boy's General Store is fine. If I were your wife, and a partner in the store, I wouldn't want to be lumped in with the "Boys' Country Store" You could call it "Ted and Mary's Country Store" Or "The Smiths' Country Store"


I am not a teacher

[htmeeks]

Good Afternoon Again:

Many Thanks for the QUICK REPLY and I am letting my ignorance shine!!!

We have 2 other PARTNERS, besides my wife and I. They are Life Long friends.

I did not quiet understand. At this point we are leaning towards the Country Boys or BOY's General Store. Which BOYS should we use?

With All Best Wishes:

BUSY BEE (Ted)

[Ann1977]

Names are exempt from rules.

The only consideration is "image" -- what you are trying to convey, and how the public is made to perceive your business by your logo, name, theme colors, etc.

Busy Bee General Store
- This means that the name of the store is "Busy Bee." There can be no fault found with this name, and it has the advantage that the other responder referred to of being easy to pronounce.
- Your customers will refer to the store as "the Busy Bee" -- "Let's get what we want from the Busy Bee, okay?" -- in the same way they would if it were called "Red River General Store."

Busy Bee's General Store
- This name means that the store is owned by exactly one bee whose name is "Busy Bee."
- Your customers will refer to the store as "Busy Bee's place" -- "Let's get what we want from Busy Bee's store, okay?" -- in the same way they would if it were called "Fred's General Store."

Busy Bees General Store
- This means that the name of the store is "Busy Bees." There is no grammatical reason not to use this name.
- Your customers will refer to it as "the Busy Bees" in the same way they would if it were called "The Pines General Store" -- "Let's get what we want from the Busy Bees, okay?"
- One problem with this is the "bare" look after the word "Bees" -- as though that apostrophe were inadvertently omitted.

Busy Bees' General Store
- This means that the store is owned by a number of busy bees.
- I'm not sure that the apostrophe would do more than clutter up your logo.

> Bee's = belonging to exactly one bee

> Bees' = belonging to a number of bees

> Bee and Bees = no comment at all -- one way or the other -- about ownership or "belonging to." This punctuation refers only to the particular number of bees --"one" or "more than one" -- and does not specify whether the bee(s) own the store or not.

Examples:
1) The bee's stinger was broken. (The stinger belongs to one bee)
2) The bees' hive was loud with buzzing. (The hive belongs to many bees)
3) A bee landed on the windowsill. (a single bee is the subject)
4) Several bees hovered over the Sweet William. (many bees are referred to)

In order of preference, if it were my store I would pick one of these two
1) Busy Bee General Store
- Short and sweet; easy to read and easy to say

2) Busy Bee's General Store
- Friendly feeling because the store's owner is a bee whose name we know
- It is sonorous to say, but logos do not like punctuation

Speaking for myself, I didn't like either of these options much at all
3) Busy Bees' General Store
4) Busy Bees General Store

[Ann1977]

Originally Posted by htmeeks

Good Afternoon Again:

Many Thanks for the QUICK REPLY and I am letting my ignorance shine!!!

We have 2 other PARTNERS, besides my wife and I. They are Life Long friends.

I did not quiet understand. At this point we are leaning towards the Country Boys or BOY's General Store. Which BOYS should we use?

With All Best Wishes:

BUSY BEE (Ted)

I think in this case you have only two good choices:

1) Country Boy General Store
- This just identifies the name of the business as "Country Boy."
- It is the same as "Aunt Jemima Pancakes" or "Sara Lee pastry" or "Old Tyme Lemonade."
- It has a "Can't Bust 'Ems" feel about it

2) Country Boys' General Store
- This states that the general store is owned by country boys.
- It has the added advantage of also suggesting that it is a store FOR country boys -- if your customers want to think of themselves that way.
- It is the same as "People's Republic of Bermuda" or "Gunslingers' Saloon" or "The Smiths' Restaurant."

I don't think you can use either
- "Country Boy's General Store" (a store owned by one country boy, or even worse, by a person whose actual name is "Country Boy") or
- "Country Boys General Store" (this just ends up looking like a grammatical mistake)

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by htmeeks

Good Morning:

Would it be more correct to say BUSY BEE GENERAL STORE or BUSY BEES GENERAL STORE? If BUSY BEES, Do you need a BEES or BEE'S ?


With All Best Wishes:



BUSY BEE

http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/as...-boy-boys.html