Mother-In-Laws-Mothers-In-Law | Commonly Confused Words
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Mother-in-laws vs. Mothers-in-law

Mother-in-laws

/ˈmʌðər ɪn lɔz/
The mother of one's spouse

Examples:

Many mother-in-laws form key bonds in family dynamics.Mother-in-laws can offer valuable advice from experience.I often turn to mother-in-laws for traditional recipes.

Synonyms:

This word has no synonyms

Antonyms:

Mothers-in-law

/ˈmʌðərz ɪn lɔː/
A term for the mothers of one's spouse

Examples:

My mothers-in-law got along famously at the family reunion.She borrowed her mothers-in-law's recipe for the holiday cake.Both mothers-in-law offered us valuable parenting advice.

Synonyms:

This word has no synonyms

Antonyms:

Ways to tell them apart:

etymology
  • "Mother-in-laws" mistakenly applies regular pluralization rules to the compound noun, whereas the plural of mother should be instead applied to mother, not in-law.
  • Remember mothers-in-law by splitting it up mentally: you have multiple mothers, each connected by marriage (in-law).
  • Think of mothers-in-law by comparing it to passed-in-laws, which also correctly places the s after passed, not in-laws.
  • Consider mothers-in-law like brothers-in-law—both treat brothers and mothers as the pluralized noun, rather than in-laws.
  • The error with mother-in-laws comes from treating the whole phrase mother-in-law as a single unit, rather than applying pluralization to the actual subject, mothers.
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