Are we The Jones's, The Jones', or The Joneses? A Guide to Plurals and Apostrophes in Last Names

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Jenny Morse, PhD
Author and CEO

Holiday cards, thank you notes, wedding ceremony invitations, and other messages sent through the mail are tough for oh so many reasons. One reason isplanning, we have to recollect about our writing before we actually beginning writing, then we need plenty offourth dimensionto get these things done. This is why I typically ship out New Twelvemonth'south Cards rather than attempting to get a holiday menu out to my friends and family earlier the holidays. Because my life yet runs on semesters, I have a suspension in mid-December that I can apply to get my cards done, just I can't even think about attempting them as the semester ends.

Another reason these notes are and then difficult is grammar.

Here'due south a quick test (multiple pick):

If your last name were Jones, would you sign your holiday card equally From

a) The Jones's

b) The Jones'

c) The Joneses

d) The Joneses'

e) The Joneses'south

Right Answer: c

Did you go it correct?

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Want to know why c is the correct answer? Keep reading below!

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Why is c the right answer?

Plurals and possessives in English are challenging.I've written well-nigh this before. Theapostrophe is used to testify possession or elision. Elision is what happens in a contraction: don't. The apostrophe shows that a letter has been skipped over or elided. Possession is when ane substantive (person, place, or thing) owns another substantive. So in club to use reply d or e, you'd have to exist signing off from the family cat or dog:

Love,

The Joneses'due south cat, Fritz

or

Dear,

The Joneses' domestic dog, Pebbles

Notice the apostrophe is dissimilar in those two options. Both are right for possession when a word ends with south, so you can cull which to do. The English grammer people can't agree.

Answers a and b are wrong if yous are speaking on behalf of the whole family, but would work perfectly fine if your name is The Jones and you have a cat or dog who is writing your holiday cards.

Since your holiday card is from the individuals that are in your family, like any plural, you lot just need to add together s.

Hither are more correct examples for less complicated names that don't end in s:

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Morse = The Morses

Riley = The Rileys

Hoffman = The Hoffmans

Wernimont = The Wernimonts


And if your proper noun ends with s (or an s sound), you add together es:

Williams = The Williamses

James = The Jameses


Of form, you can get around all of this by simply adding the word "family" after your concluding name:

The Morse Family

The Riley Family unit

The Hoffman Family

The Wernimont Family

The Williams Family

The James Family

And then, no apostrophes on those vacation cards, cheers notes, and nuptials invitations, ok?

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