A Holiday to Remember

by Jill Kemerer from the November 25, 2019 issue

Tagline: Alone on Thanksgiving, Ryan has all but given up on finding love...until Melissa Daniels arrives to sweeten his day.

Observations: This week, the teaching moment is a lesson in punctuation. I usually refrain from pointing out errors in the stories, but the holidays are upon us and maybe I can help someone avoid this mistake when ordering their Christmas cards because people often label the family photo and add an unnecessary apostrophe and this drives me bonkers!

Apostrophes indicate possession or a contraction. That's it. Those are the only times you use them. So when you're not sure, just ask yourself:

1. Are there two words being smashed together? If so, use the apostrophe in the place where the missing letters would have been.
2. Are you talking about something belonging to someone? If so, use the apostrophe. If not, don't use it.

So, when you are talking about a family, such as the Smiths, you add an "s" to indicate there is more than one person named Smith.

This is the street the Smiths live on.
I gave an anniversary card to the McCarthys.
The Hamlins are away on vacation.

If you are talking about something that belongs to the Smith family, there is an apostrophe, because we are showing possession.

That is the Smiths' house. 
The McCarthys' dog dug up my garden.
I'll be watering the Hamlins' lawn while they're away.

The house/dog/lawn belongs to all of the people in the family, not just one of them.

So, here is a short quiz to check for understanding. (That's a term from my days as a teacher! LOL) Apostrophe? Yes or no? Be careful with #4. It's tricky.

1. The Clooneys house was broken into last week.
2. The Rutherfords are throwing a party.
3. We invited the Parkers over for game night.
4. I'm going to the Browns for Thanksgiving.
5. The Sullivans won the lottery.

Answers:
1. yes
2. no
3. no
4. yes
5. no


Number four does have an apostrophe because, even though the word "house" is not there, it's implied.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/what-happens-to-names-when-we-make-them-plural-or-possessive