others, other's, others'

[robertreams]

believe it or not I was just on a site with a very long discussion of the usage of "other's"

there were many opinions. I have always used "kissed each other's face" - all singular because of "each"

But on this site there were all kinds of opinions. One "expert" even tried to claim that eachother was one word!
I am unfamiliar with usage in the UK, and am only checking. Does everyone here agree that it should be " they wrote each other's name"?

 

[sr71plt]

Have never thought of it, but, yes, the "each" would make the "other" singular, so "each other's."

 

[DeYaKen]

believe it or not I was just on a site with a very long discussion of the usage of "other's"

there were many opinions. I have always used "kissed each other's face" - all singular because of "each"

But on this site there were all kinds of opinions. One "expert" even tried to claim that eachother was one word!
I am unfamiliar with usage in the UK, and am only checking. Does everyone here agree that it should be " they wrote each other's name"?

Definitely right in UK aswell.

Each other definitely two words in my book. You know what us engineers say about experts?

X is the unknown quantity, and a spurt is a drip under pressure.

 

[robertreams]

one of the reasons I began this stream is that every time I type "each other's" on MS word or Open Office, my spell checker says it is wrong. What's up with that?

 

[elfin_odalisque]

one of the reasons I began this stream is that every time I type "each other's" on MS word or Open Office, my spell checker says it is wrong. What's up with that?

Because MSword is just reading 'each other' as a reciprocal pronoun and not a possessive.

'We kissed each other' v. 'we kissed each other's face'. Same applies to 'one another' but some claim this can only be used for more than 2 people. I disagree.

 

[sr71plt]

Computer spellcheck can't handle possessives.

 

[robertreams]

lol and lots of other things. I lost it but I once had a poem, about a spell checker, composed entirely of incorrectly spelled words that all passed the spellchecker. It went something like this: Eye half a swell chequer on my pea cee etc