XPost: rec.puzzles, alt.usage.english   
   From: HenHanna@NewsGrouper   
      
   >>>  plural is more common in AmE.   
      
      
   Singular is much more common in Am-Eng and Br-Eng   
      
   https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sake%3Aeng_us%2Csa   
   e%3Aeng_gb%2Csakes%3Aeng_us%2Csakes%3Aeng_gb&year_start=1920&yea   
   _end=2022&case_insensitive=true&corpus=en&smoothing=2   
      
      
      
   ________________________________On 16/11/25  micky wrote:   
      
   > Some arrogant spell-checker is complaining because I used "for gosh   
   >                  sakes".   
   >   
   > Do you think "sakes" is a valid word?   
      
      
   The version I'm used to is   "For goodness' sake" (singular). I even use   
   the singular in examples like "I'm putting these papers in order, for my   
   children's sake".   
      
   I'm aware, though, that the plural is more common in AmE.   
      
   --   
   Peter Moylan peter@pmoylan.org http://www.pmoylan.org   
   Newcastle, NSW   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)