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I mean, for what I remember of my english classes it should be WordPress', or not?

Would this be a Meta Question?

Or a English Language & Usage one?

[update]
What I ended up writing (in an email) before Comments and Answers was

...deal with a couple of WordPress' projects...

[update]
Well, it ended up being an Engrish Fail.

Thanks, Johannes, for opening the question at English Language & Usage.

Toscho's answer also prompted me to open another at Spanish Language and Usage, but for a person's name. (oh, my, is this apostrophe correct?)

In spanish, it would be "Los WordPress".

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  • 3
    The apostrophe after the s would denote ownership. It would either be (singular) WordPress's or (plural) WordPresses'.
    – Stephen Harris
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 2:05
  • @StephenHarris - yep, clearly, plurals and ownerships got mixed in the mix, thx!
    – brasofilo
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 2:09
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    Isn't there an English Grammar StackExchange that would be more appropriate for this question?
    – Chip Bennett
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 13:07
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    Actually, I disagree with @toscho's answer, but as I believe the question is not a good fit for WPSE, and explaining my disagreement would only exacerbate that problem, I'm refraining from doing so.
    – Chip Bennett
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 13:43
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    @JohannesPille to the contrary: that is one of the criteria. If you change the context to some other platform, and the answer remains the same, then the question is not specific to WordPress, and therefore inherently off-topic for WPSE.
    – Chip Bennett
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 17:39

4 Answers 4

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WordPress is a singular without plural. A second instance would be a fork that could not use the same name, because the name WordPress is a trademark of the WordPress Foundation.

Like Jesus, just more rules.

If WordPress had a plural it would be WordPresses, like in mess or mistress. But the prerequisite for that would be that WordPress becomes either a physical object or self-aware (and able to create self-aware copies). I will update my answer on the day that happens.

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  • Uau, I mean, wow, that was deep. And definitely. I think so. I guess. Goood.
    – brasofilo
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 2:19
  • +1. But is it? Is a trademark a singular without a plural per se? "Pepsi" for instance is a trademark. And granted, it would be better to say "Two bottles of Pepsi, please!", but can't I ask the waiter for "Two Pepsis"?
    – Johannes Pille
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 2:22
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    @JohannesPille Pepsi as the name of the company has no plural; the drink is a physical object, not a collection of … ideas.
    – fuxia ♦
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 2:24
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    @JohannesPille You can phrase it like that if you want, but its still incorrect. If you want "two cans of Pepsi", you would say, "hey busboy, two Pepsi please!" no "s". Just like "I have five WordPress on my server" would be the correct form of the expression, no "es". Sure that's harder to digest but you'd normally say "I have five WordPress installations on my server" or something similar that indicates the plural form. Trademark or not, that's irrelevant. Some words and names just can't bastardized like we do with everything else in the English language :)
    – Adam
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 2:52
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    Funniest thing I've seen here in a while: "Like Jesus, just more rules."
    – Ray Gulick
    Commented Dec 4, 2012 at 21:05
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Hate to play grammar police here; but using the plural form of WordPress in the example you've given is incorrect.

The correct form would be `...WordPress projects...' not '...WordPresses projects...'

After all you deal with a couple of WordPress projects, not WordPresses projects.

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    Yes you are right but, but at least 15,000 others have violated your law :)
    – Adam
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 3:29
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    @userabuser You are right of course. But grammar is like a lie; tell a lie often enough and people believe it. Use poor grammar long enough and it becomes accepted. Hmmm could I collect a fine on those 15,000 others?
    – Steve
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 3:32
  • 100% in agreement. In that context, and any other, it looks like, there's no plural for WP. One singular to rule them all. It was just a strike of that simple, innocent doubt, discharged in form of a Question. And I checked and searched, looks like was not asked before...
    – brasofilo
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 3:32
  • @userabuser ~15,000 :) FYI, don't rely on that search result-set count. Try searching for "moon", then "moon -landing".
    – Adam Lynch
    Commented Dec 5, 2012 at 18:54
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In English, it's an uncountable noun. Like information or advice.

Generally the plural nature is made explicit by the context. E.g. "different versions of WordPress"

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  • I like this answer, if only because the op didn't offer any context for needing a plural. Except perhaps for the contrived sentence, "there are not two Wordpresses, only the one we know and love."
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica
    Commented Dec 4, 2012 at 21:18
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Colloquially, this is definitely meta, but whether it is in stackexchange technical terms, I don't have an opinion on.

As for the actual question, I'd say it's "WordPresses".

I have never given this consideration when it comes to WordPress, but if you'd check "press (noun)" in a dictionary, it should give you "presses" as a plural. And if that's the case, it goes for all nominal composita that end in "press" as well, such as "bench press" and "bench presses".

Needing to use the plural can obviously be avoided by paraphrasing it as "several installations of WordPress", or the like, which I personally feel sounds much nicer anyway.

Edit

Oxford Dictionary Online (British) as well as my paperback Merriam Webster (US) say the same:

If the noun ends with -ch, -s, -sh, -x, or -z, add -es to form the plural
bus --> buses
kiss --> kisses

[update (pertaining to the OP's update)]

If you were to describe something that is inherent to WordPress, say the core or some API, then you could call it "WordPress's core" (weird, but grammatically correct), i.e. "the core that belongs to WordPress" (Stephen's ownership, or "possessive", case).

Your usage is wrong though, with or without (without anyway) an s following the apostrophe, because you mean to say "projects involving WordPress" and not "projects belonging to WordPress". In this case though, life is even simpler than you made it for yourself: "projects" is what needs to be in plural form. In that case, "WordPress" simply remains "WordPress".

Edit 2

As per English Language & Usage:

Whether there is a plural form depends entirely on whether there is actually a singular form.
In the case of WordPress, there isn't a singular form. You don't say “I implemented my blog as a WordPress.” It’s using WordPress or even on WordPress or in WordPress, but not as a WordPress.
Consequently there is no plural form.
This doesn't apply to all trademarked names, though. One may very well talk about Compaqs or Pepsis or Hoovers or even Guinnesses and Tumblrs. All of these have a singular form — a Compaq [computer]; a [drink made by] Pepsi; a [vacuum cleaner made by] Hoover; a [proprietary drink made by] Guinness; a [blog built on] Tumblr.
Additionally, it probably depends to some extent on how euphonious the plural form (if there might be one) actually is. Even though one might talk of a Kleenex for a tissue, a few Kleenexes is unlikely to occur. WordPresses may well fall into that category as well as the “no plural” category, even if Guinnesses does not.

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  • That's a war for sure: one thing is what we want the language to be and other is what it actually is in the real world: The Norm versus The Usage.
    – brasofilo
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 12:38

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