Apostrophe with "s"

[Deb]

Regular nouns are nouns that form their plurals by adding either the letter s or es (guy, guys; letter, letters; actress, actresses; etc.).
To show plural possession, simply put an apostrophe after the s.
Do not use an apostrophe + s to make a regular noun plural.

Using apostrophes to show possession
Using apostrophes to show omission (this would be a contraction)

More information here: en.oxforddictionaries.com/punctuation/apostrophe

• What have you found works for you when using the apostrophe with the letter 's'?


• What about when a word or name ends in 's' and you need to pluralize it?

When I learned to use this in a shorthand outline, I just write it as I would in longhand. However, if you find that you don't need it, then don't write it. If it seems like it might interfere with the other outlines and you have time, you could even circle the apostrophe.

[Deb]

I was wondering about Presidents Day holiday as I've seen it many ways. Here are the results:

"President’s Day" infers that the day belongs to a singular president.
My reminder on this is "day of the president", so it is singular. This might be used if its for Washington's Day holiday, you're referring to one president.

"Presidents Day" with no apostrophe is for all presidents, past and present.

"Presidents' Day" with the apostrophe on the end, one president and one other, so may Washington's Day and Lincoln's Day.

[Deb]

When you have several variations of the apostrophe, you may wish to use the apostrophe in your shorthand outline.

The only reason you really need to do this is to make sure you transcribe it accurately. Legal documents (and some people you might be taking shorthand for) would want an accurate transcript.

If you choose to use one in your shorthand notes, just add it to the outline, like a regular longhand apostrophe.

[lvw]

Sorry, Deb, but I think you have it wrong in your post about Presidents Day. An apostrophe before the s is, as you said, for a single possessor. But an apostrophe after the s is the plural possessive. It doesn't matter whether two or more possessors are involved. So a day dedicated to all the presidents should be called Presidents' Day, if you wish to be grammatical.

But different states name the holiday differently: President's Day, Presidents' Day, Presidents Day, and various other things such as Washington-Lincoln Day. The federal holiday is called Washington's Birthday.

[Deb]

Irv, Thank you.
I just went by what I saw on the internet and tried to decipher it. Yours is correct. Yes, the federal holiday is Washington's Birthday, but so many are changing it and I saw ads on TV that were for Presidents Day, with or without the apostrophe, so I tried to look it up and figure it out.