Possessives

It's February, the month known for, among other things, Groundhog Day, Presidents' Day, and St. Valentine's Day.

According to Punxsutawney Phil, the famous Gobbler's Knob groundhog, we in the Northeast, at least, are in for six more weeks of winter because he saw his shadow on February 2. Of course, had he not seen it, we'd have a month and a half more. Either way, think Spring! It's coming, folks.

Now, Presidents' Day. In your local newspapers, you've no doubt seen Presidents' Day ads for cars - for the car companies, this is a huge sales event. But have you noticed the confusion surrounding the punctuation of Presidents' Day?  The apostrophe is either missing, placed before the s, or placed after it. I sure wish those who print the ads would get it straight! The apostrophe needs to go after the s because it's a plural possessive. The day honors more than one President -- Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.  Were it about only one, it would be President's Day.

St. Valentine's Day also has an apostrophe, but here it comes before the s. It's named in honor of one person, St. Valentine.

Although many people know there are both an apostrophe and an s in possessives, there is still confusion as to where the apostrophe goes. Here's the simplest way I know to determine that.

Take the possessive phrase and turn it around, putting the word of in between the words:

• Turn Presidents Day into the Day of the Presidents.

• Turn St. Valentines Day into the Day of St. Valentine.
• Turn Freds car into the car of Fred.
• Turn the peoples choice into the choice of the people.
• Turn the mens room into the room of the men.

This gives you the base word you're trying to make possessive - Presidents, St. Valentine, Fred, people, men.

Then:

• If the base word is singular, add an apostrophe and s.
• If the base word is a regular plural (one ending in s), add just the apostrophe. It already has the s built into the word.
• If the base word is an irregular plural (one not ending in s), add an apostrophe and s.

So, following these rules, the phrases would be:

• Presidents' Day
• St. Valentine's Day
• Fred's car
• People's choice
• Men's room

Ah, what about proper names, you ask? Follow the same rules.

• Susan's car (the car of Susan)
• Susan Rooks's car (the car of Susan Rooks)
• The Rookses' picnic (two or more people named Rooks; the plural is Rookses)
• The Joneses' house (two or more people named Jones, such as Mr. & Mrs. Jones)
• Mark Jones's house
• Alex's book
• Maria Hernandez's bicycle
• The Hernandezes' houses (two or more people named Hernandez)

Yes, I know - plurals of last names look weird! But the plural rule for names is the same as for other nouns. For regular nouns we add s or es to words to make them plural, and we do it for proper nouns as well.