Ah, the holiday season. The snow is falling (if we’re lucky—or if we’re unlucky, depending on your point of view), everyone is looking forward to a break in their routines, and holiday cards are zooming across the country and the globe.
This also means it’s time for cards with such punctuation disasters as
- Happy Holiday’s from the Johnson’s, and
- Seasons Greetings from the Gonzales’, and
- Brunch will be served at the William’s house
These punctuation disasters are so commonplace that they should be declared a national emergency. Therefore, in the interest of clarity and a season of holiday card-giving free of punctuation emergencies, let’s talk about apostrophes.
Apostrophes are used in two contexts: possessive nouns (like “the dog’s bed”) and omitted letters/contractions (like “can’t”). The former is what we’ll be focusing on here, since it’s at the root of the problem.
But first, it’s most important to highlight what apostrophes are not used for: plurals.
- More than one holiday = “holidays,” not “holiday’s.”
- More than one person with the name Johnson = “Johnsons,” not “Johnson’s.”
So, when you think you need to use an apostrophe, first ask yourself: Am I talking about something possessive? Am I talking about James’ house, or Mx. Mayfield’s party? If so, then you should use an apostrophe.
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A quick and easy test for this is to rephrase: if you see an apostrophe and you think it’s intended to be possessive, rephrase it to “the {possession]} of {possessor}.” So, “Mx. Mayfield’s party” would become “the party of Mx. Mayfield.” Similarly, “season’s greetings” means “greetings of the season,” and as such, the apostrophe belongs exactly where it is.
If you perform that substitution and it makes sense, then all is likely to be well. But if you try it with something like “happy holiday’s,” it simply won’t work—that’s a sign the apostrophe is misplaced and should be removed. Same with a phrase like “the Lis wish you well.” If there were an apostrophe where it shouldn’t be (“the Li’s wish you well”), then it would be nonsensical and profoundly ungrammatical: the wish of the Lis… you well?
But that’s not all! Plurals and apostrophes can present a tricky challenge too. Many family names—the main sticking point when it comes to holiday card misspellings—are pluralized. You’ll want to only use an apostrophe if you’re using the possessive, and you’ll want to make sure it’s in the right place: the Ibrahim family would be the plural noun “the Ibrahims,” and the possessive would be “the Ibrahims’ {noun}.” Never “the Ibrahim’s.”
There is one special case worth mentioning, and that is for names that end in an S. A family name like Gonzales would be pluralized as Gonzaleses: “The Gonzaleses wish you a happy new year.” However, that’s a bit awkard-looking for most, so often that doubled-up “-es” sound will be changed to something a bit more elegant: “the Gonzales family.” Never “the Gonzales’.”
To sum up, keep the following things in mind this holiday-card-writing season, and you’ll be in the clear:
- If the word you’re writing ends in S, pay extra attention to whether you have a plural or a possessive, or if it’s just a family name like “Williams” or “Gonzales” that ends in an S.
- Family names, when ref are plurals, and need to be treated like any other plural noun.
- Apostrophes are not for plurals, but instead denote possession. Test for possession by rearranging a phrase you’ve written from “X’s Y” to “the Y of X” to see if it makes sense.
Stay safe this holiday season—use apostrophes only when you need them!
