Greeting Card Grammar

If you're getting ready to write your holiday newsletter, cards, or invitations, I'm here to help you avoid some of the most common problems! 

Making names that end in -s or -z plural

Making names plural is one of the most common questions to come up around the holidays.

Some names are easy, like "Brown." You just add an -s like you would to any common noun. "The Browns invite you to dinner."

But when you get to names that end in -s, -z, -ch, -sh, and -ss, it gets trickier.

Fortunately, the same rule applies for all these names: you add -es to make them plural.

• The Joneses are coming for dinner. 
• The Alvarezes always decorate their house beautifully. 
• The Birches make the best cinnamon apple cake. 
• The Marshes make all their own gifts.
• The Besses love to have people over for the holidays.

Making names that end in -y and -i plural.

People also sometimes wonder how to make names that end in -y or -i plural, like my last name, Fogarty.

They're both the same as those easy names, like Brown: you just add an -s.

• The Fogartys meant to decorate their tree on Thanksgiving, but didn't get around to it. F-O-G-A-R-T-Y-S (not -ies as people are sometimes tempted to write).
• The Aldis are making pasta with fish on Christmas Eve. A-L-D-I-S. (And—side note—both words of "Christmas Eve" are capitalized because it's a holiday.)

Don't use an apostrophe to make names plural

You don't use an apostrophe to make names plural.
 
You use an apostrophe to make names possessive, and when the name is already plural, you just put an apostrophe on the end, no extra -s.

For example, let's say you went to visit the Alvarezes, and then you wanted to write to tell your mom about their wonderful house. To make "Alvarezes" possessive, you add an apostrophe to the end, so you would write, “Mom, you should have seen the Alvarezes' house!” 

• The Birches' cake is the best.
• The Besses' always get their decorations up early.
• The Marshes' party got canceled at the last minute.
• The Joneses' children are coming home for break this year.

Compound Possession and Apostrophes

Next, we've talked about this before, but ...

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