Those Pesky Apostrophes Again and more…

Contribution from a listener of Radio 2 this morning. Overheard in a shop, “Do you sell thick boys socks?” or “Do you sell thick boy’s socks?” In the first instance, hopefully this isn’t a form of discrimination and, in the second, there must be more than one lad around slightly less intelligent than the rest. On the other hand, it may be that there is a bespoke range of socks available only to them. If only they had asked, “Do you sell boys’ thick socks?”