A Holiday Grammar Guide to Sending Christmas Cards
It’s the holiday season! That means it’s time to get in touch with friends and relatives near and far, and for many that means sending Christmas cards. Wishing others holiday cheer seems simple enough (and we all know we need it!), however, there is one element of sending Christmas cards that many people get wrong: writing their last name. With this guide, you’ll avoid this common blunder by learning how to make your last name plural and when it’s appropriate to use apostrophes.
The Dreaded Plural Surname
The grammar nerds love to come out wherever there’s a typo, an incorrect use of “there,” or the omission of “whom,” but at Christmastime, it seems the pointing out the errors of plural surnames is their favorite pastime.
Pluralizing your last name is very simple, but sometimes the simpler something is, the more prone it is to overthinking and overcorrection. The biggest mistakes people make when making their surname plural is either adding an apostrophe or changing the spelling of their last name.
Here’s a big tip: Plurals NEVER take an apostrophe! So how do you do it? Easy! To make your last name plural, add either “-es” or “-s” to the end – no exceptions!
Claus → Clauses
Dix → Dixes
Schultz → Schultzes
Birch → Birches
Rush → Rushes
If a surname ends in any other letter, add an “-s.”
Smith → Smiths
Murphy → Murphys
Berg → Bergs
Fenster → Fensters
What if a last name ends in “y”? Simply add an “-s.” Don’t change the “y” to “-ies” like with regular nouns. A surname is a proper noun, and proper nouns never change their spelling, even when adding morphemes. (A morpheme is the smallest unit of language that has meaning. In this case, our morpheme is the “-s” at the end of a word that indicates plurality.)
Don’t like how your last name looks plural? Simply sign off with “The ____ Family” to avoid any use of plurality or apostrophes!
To apostrophe, or not to apostrophe? That is the question.
You may be wondering, “Is there ever a time I should use an apostrophe with my plural last name?” The answer is yes, but only when you are showing that something belongs to your family, and in this case it should go at the end of your last name, not before the “-s.”
Apostrophes are used in two instances:
- Contractions, when you combine two words due to a slang in pronunciation
- Possession, to show something belongs to someone
When a word ends in “-s” (such as your plural last name) and you want to make it possessive, you only need add an apostrophe and NOT an apostrophe + “s.” For example, you would say “the Smiths’ house” rather than “the Smith’s house” to show that the house belongs to the Smiths as a family group.
When addressing an envelope, you’ll want to omit the apostrophe, and just say “the Smiths,” because you are addressing your envelope to the family and not to an inanimate object that they own.
If you are at all confused, this guide is extremely helpful in laying this all out clearly!
I hope this guide is helpful to you as you are sending Christmas cards this year!
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