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

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