Saturday, September 6, 2008

I know you have all been losing as much sleep over this as I have

so here is the official answer that I found.

Making Plurals of NamesIf you want to make a name plural, it follows the same spelling rule as any other kind of noun. So we write that I live next door to the Smiths. No apostrophe--no letter is left out, the word is not possessive. We would also write that the Smiths live next to the Joneses. Here -es is added to Jones because the singular word ends in an s, just like we make dresses from dress.
Smith with an apostrophe s is possessive, just like any other noun. We could say I am Mr. Smith's neighbor. That is the normal rule for making possessives. There is nothing different about it because it is a name. If Smith is plural and possessive, we would follow the same pattern that we use for any other nouns: I am the Smiths' neighbor.
If the name ends with an s, the same possessive and plural rules apply to the name as to any other noun. So we say Mr. Smith is Mr. Jones' neighbor, or Mr. Smith is Mr. Jones's neighbor, depending on how we pronounce it. Be consistent, whichever way you choose. If Jones is plural, add an apostrophe after the plural form, since we never pronounce a word "Joneseses." We would write Mr. Smith is the Joneses' neighbor.
The only practice that is different is with numbers or with italicized or underlined words, letters, numbers, or symbols that name themselves.


Yeah, I know, too long to read. But when I looked up "Keeping up with the Jones'" Wikipedia said "Keeping up with the Joneses" and we all know that Wikipedia knows everything, so I will change my picture and rest easy tonight that this mystery has been solved.

6 comments:

Lolo said...

So where does that leave mine? Keeping up with the Rogerses, lol! I need to reread your blog, Im confused. I think mine is exempt, it HAS to be.... right? I think Ill stick to spelling like a yokel, who will join me?

Jill Ison said...

glad you cleared that all up. is was losing some serious sleep. uhhh are we doing christmas cards form 2 years ago pertty soon?

Wendy Hansen said...

Yes, we need to start working on those Christmas cards. I just figured out mine and ordered all of the stuff, and I'm pretty sure I still have everything for yours. So what days are good for you to get chopping on them? I can always come pick you up to if you have a car situation.

Benjamin Hunsaker said...

You could have just said that I was right. Whew! I'm glad that I nailed that one, makes me feel smart. :)

Rogers is a toughy. I've never liked putting the es on the end of Rogers or Williams. I agree that you're exempt and we'll leave it at that.

-Ben

Annalee says that since she never made her own gmail account, that we're going to sign our posts so that you konw which of us is saying it.

Jill Ison said...

what about a saturday? i am so tied down with homeschool and whatnot. I seriously have a hard time getting to the grocery store! Ikes!! that way the kids could play too. but that is alot of kids so.... when are you free? maybe i could schedule time if i really put my mind to it?

Benjamin Hunsaker said...

I wish I read this last night, I totally lost some serious sleep. Wow, Ben checked out your blog again? I am so impressed. He doesn't even look at our blog. My blog is so not cutesy and I just don't care. There are all sorts of super cute blog back grounds for free and they give you directions on how to do them. I think some sites are cutestblogontheblock.dome or you could just google blog layouts and see what you get.

Ben and I will probably come to AZ the week before Thanksgiving or so until the beginning of Jan. So you can kiss those cheeks then. :) We're also going to celebrate Kylee's 1st birthday either Nov 28th or 29th since that was her due date. We're going to celebrate here too of course, but thought you guys would like to celebrate with her too when she's actually "1". So, if you plan on sending anything, you can wait and give it to her in Nov!