Q: What's your opinion on double possessives? When describing Huckleberry Finn and Jim floating down the Mississippi River on a raft, for instance, should we refer to it as "Huck and Jim's raft" or "Huck's and Jim's raft"? — Larry Bulgier, Suffield, Connecticut

A: When two or more people possess something in common, treat them as a single unit, and place the apostrophe and "s" at the end of the final name, e.g., "Huck and Jim's raft." But, if Huck had a raft, and Jim had a separate raft, you'd write, "Huck's and Jim's rafts."

Q: A news report about the crash of a car carrying four passengers said that "none of the four WAS hurt." Is this correct? — Erica House, Troy, Michigan

A: Whether anyone was hurt or not, I can't say. But I can tell you it's correct to treat "none" as a singular, e.g., "None of the four was hurt." And here's the surprise: It's also correct to treat "none" as a plural, e.g., "None of the four were hurt."

Many of us were taught that "none," being a contraction of "not one," should always be treated as a singular. But most experts now agree that "none" really means "not any of them," and thus can take a plural verb, e.g., "None of the four were hurt."

Q: Dictionaries usually define "moot" as meaning "debatable." However, I've frequently heard the word used in a context suggesting almost the opposite, i.e., a "moot point" is a matter that's a "done deal" (not capable of being debated). Can you explain this? — Dale Steitz, Allentown, Pennsylvania

A: I'm glad you mooted (raised) that question.

The traditional meaning of the adjective "moot" is, indeed, "subject to debate, disputable," as in, "Whether the steamboat pilot intentionally ran over Huck and Jim's raft remains a moot question."

But during the past century, people started using the term "moot court" for a mock trial in which law students practiced their arguing skills. Because the outcome of a moot court has no actual consequences, "moot" took on a secondary definition: "deprived of practical significance, purely academic," e.g., "The question of whether Huck should turn in Jim as an escaped slave becomes moot when it's discovered that Miss Watson has died and freed Jim in her will."

Gradually, much to the dismay of linguistic purists, an even more extreme extension of this meaning developed to denote an issue that's settled, not worthy of debate, e.g., "The question of whether Mark Twain is a significant American literary figure is now moot."

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Connecticut, invites your language sightings. His book, "Mark My Words," is available for $9.99 on Amazon.com. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via email to WordGuy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, California, 90254.

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