What, exactly, makes them "different sets" of words? Different genitive declensions?
It doesn't matter what makes them different; it doesn't even matter if the only thing that makes them different is the way they are made possessive. The rules are clear even if why they are rules (or should be) isn't. What is equally clear is that you are not following the rule(s), which means you are not only not right, but wrong.
If I convince a majority of the public and scholars to spell "fly" with "ie" when referring to the insect, is it a legitimate rule? 

Well, yes
That's kind of the whole point. So until you convince the majority of the public and scholars to adopt your treatment of possessives, you'll remain wrong. Furthermore, your readers will have to spend extra time (negligible though it may be for each individual instance) deciding from context whether you mean a word to be plural, possessive, or whether you've simply made an error. And you'll give the appearance of someone who doesn't know how to write properly, which you're obviously fine with. 
If you are from Betelgeuse, please have one of your Earth friends read what I've written before you respond. Or try concentrating harder.
"The trophy problem has become extreme."
"The trophy problem has become extreme."
Grammar junkies
- 05/10/2011 06:46:31 PM
1170 Views
I'm not always sure that I'm correct, but....
- 05/10/2011 07:04:13 PM
866 Views
I didn't see any errors
- 05/10/2011 07:24:27 PM
845 Views
- 05/10/2011 07:24:27 PM
845 Views
Must ... have ... grammar.
- 05/10/2011 07:53:34 PM
1041 Views
For you and Tom as well, the same question about question eight.
- 05/10/2011 08:33:39 PM
1334 Views
Tom can probably give you actual terms and correct rules, but here's my take on it.
- 05/10/2011 08:43:47 PM
810 Views
Er...yes I meant them as a singular idea...
*NM*
- 05/10/2011 08:47:34 PM
483 Views
*NM*
- 05/10/2011 08:47:34 PM
483 Views
Use them together, and only together, for fifteen years and we can discuss this again. *NM*
- 05/10/2011 09:32:30 PM
419 Views
That makes sense as far as it goes.
- 05/10/2011 09:02:42 PM
876 Views
But do you actually regard them that way?
- 05/10/2011 09:08:36 PM
831 Views
Yeah, pretty much.
- 05/10/2011 09:25:18 PM
792 Views
No, Joel. You're just wrong. Again. Get used to it. We have.
- 05/10/2011 09:31:21 PM
734 Views
- 05/10/2011 09:31:21 PM
734 Views
I can live with being wrong, at least in the sense of technical error.
- 05/10/2011 10:06:30 PM
842 Views
Let's just pare this down to the bare bones.
- 06/10/2011 01:37:30 AM
687 Views
He made a mistake that I did not recognize as a mistake because I read his words as he intended.
- 06/10/2011 04:43:39 AM
837 Views
You bring up a point that I was researching the other day
- 05/10/2011 08:53:40 PM
886 Views
You guys mean a hyphen, not a dash.
- 05/10/2011 09:00:25 PM
850 Views
- 05/10/2011 09:00:25 PM
850 Views
You're right of course!
- 05/10/2011 09:13:44 PM
919 Views
I frequently am.
- 05/10/2011 09:16:38 PM
913 Views
So I've noticed.
- 05/10/2011 09:19:38 PM
837 Views
Achtung! Grammatik! :insert Nazi-saluting smiley as the Wehrmacht marches by:
- 05/10/2011 08:10:45 PM
943 Views
Good poll, especially for this site.
- 05/10/2011 08:11:10 PM
953 Views
Re: Grammar junkies
- 05/10/2011 08:33:06 PM
838 Views
People should talk in a way that can be understood, else they are not communicating.
- 05/10/2011 09:17:37 PM
896 Views
Re: "everyone's". ~winky~ *NM*
- 05/10/2011 09:22:18 PM
408 Views
Is it time for my lecture on superfluous apostrophes again?
- 05/10/2011 09:43:47 PM
802 Views
- 05/10/2011 09:43:47 PM
802 Views
Unsurprisingly, I don't really agree with you at all on this point. :p
- 05/10/2011 10:29:59 PM
889 Views
I do not really think I am "right" on this one so much as "not wrong."
- 06/10/2011 12:01:36 AM
808 Views
But contradictions are inherent in the entire English language!
- 06/10/2011 01:25:39 AM
797 Views
Ghoti. Also, this is why Rebekah and don't argue this any more.
*NM*
- 06/10/2011 04:44:42 AM
369 Views
*NM*
- 06/10/2011 04:44:42 AM
369 Views
Sure, but not deliberate ones created by grammarians who know better.
- 06/10/2011 05:40:58 AM
804 Views
I'm going to listen to the others.
- 06/10/2011 06:17:18 AM
821 Views
Like I say, I appreciate exceptions when justified (and again, only claiming to be "not wrong." )
- 06/10/2011 07:26:18 AM
706 Views
But you are wrong
- 06/10/2011 02:17:40 PM
849 Views
- 06/10/2011 02:17:40 PM
849 Views
I disagree.
- 07/10/2011 12:15:14 AM
786 Views
- 07/10/2011 12:15:14 AM
786 Views
How utterly unsurprising
- 07/10/2011 02:21:38 PM
775 Views
- 07/10/2011 02:21:38 PM
775 Views
"We want to be nothing if not persistent."
- 07/10/2011 02:39:19 PM
810 Views
Doesn't matter.
- 07/10/2011 03:12:14 PM
818 Views
Perhaps not, but it should, and I am not above being a lone voice crying in the wilderness.
- 08/10/2011 05:17:35 PM
916 Views
What.
- 06/10/2011 06:17:41 PM
891 Views
Those cases are not the same, because those words are already possessive in their own right.
- 06/10/2011 10:52:06 PM
880 Views
if you have trouble understanding my post it is more likely do to typing skills than grammar
- 05/10/2011 09:31:42 PM
794 Views
Likely so; I have the same problem, but usually when writing by hand.
- 05/10/2011 09:53:08 PM
764 Views
#1) I do not use NetSpeak while playing games, texting or using social media.
- 05/10/2011 11:34:12 PM
780 Views
What about NateSpeak? *NM*
- 06/10/2011 04:01:08 PM
378 Views
I did use that once to tell the story of you and CNRedDragon going to see Ice Princess. *NM*
- 07/10/2011 01:46:50 AM
398 Views
I freebase split infinitives on a regular basis.
- 06/10/2011 01:53:36 PM
705 Views
