It's the most difficult thing about English, the annoying exceptions to nearly every rule. In the first installment of "Mrs. Language," a serious version of Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry's satirical "Mr. Language Person," we began with possessives and plurals, a.k.a. the two faces of "s." Naturally that brought comments from readers with more questions than clarity. Blame the melting pot that is English.

A mini-review: Add "s" to make most words plural, but precede with an apostrophe ('s) for possessives only. Except when an apostrophe substitutes for missing letters, such as "isn't," short for "is not." Except when it comes to its, and it's. And before you say, "Those are incomplete sentences," and "Don't begin a sentence with 'and,'" chalk it up to stylistic license. And you're right.

To make "it" possessive, such as, "Its engine was on fire," we do not use the apostrophe. Why "its" is an exception to the possessive apostrophe rule is simple: confusion is likely. Because we so often use the word "it's" to mean "it is" ("it's a fine day"), to use the apostrophe ('s) to refer to both the contraction and the possessive would be very confusing. So when we write it, "its" is the possessive, and "it's" is a contraction meaning "is not."

Think that's all for exceptions? Forget about it. As two readers mentioned there are also plural possessive exceptions with certain nouns which end in s, x, ch, sh, or z. Consider the Joneses. Their last name is Jones. It is "the Jones' house" (not the "Jones's) and we like to see "the Joneses" (not the added "e"). Why? Again it's confusion. Without these exceptions, deciphering both the meaning and the spelling of "Jones" could be a challenge.

Before I leave plurals, another reader mentioned compound nouns. These are a special problem; which word is plural? The answer is the primary noun, not the modifying words. So it's "daughters-in-law;" it is incorrect to say, "mother-in-laws." The words mother and daughter are the nouns, so these are what become plural by adding an "s." So why do we accept cupfuls? Why didn't we stick with cups full? Yet another exception.

Finally, a brief mention of plurals in Latin, which makes a regular appearance in accepted English. One commonly seen is "alum-" and its variations. Alumni are plural. Latin like many other languages has different endings for feminine than for masculine nouns; thus "alumna" is female and "alumnus" is male. At least in English (Latin gets more complex), "alumni" refers to the plural of either, or a combination of genders.

Now why we stick to this but changed the plural of the Latin word, "stadia" to "stadiums," I'll never quite understand. English can be so frustrating.

"When comforting a grammar Nazi, I always say softly, there, their, they're." (seen below a Snoopy cartoon).

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone New Network. Contact her at sholehjo@hotmail.com.