by Donna | May 23, 2011
May is halfway over! And so are May’s holidays! Here is a list of the holidays for May, spelled and punctuated correctly:
*Mother’s Day
1. Remember, you have one mother–the day belongs to her…
2. Show possession of mother by writing the singular word mother–doesn’t end in an s, so we put ‘s to show possession to it***
3. Cap M and cap D
*Memorial Day
1. No s or ‘s in this holiday
2. Cap M and cap D
***HINT: Do not worry about whether the word you want to show possession to is singular or plural.
by Donna | Feb 21, 2011
Tomorrow is Presidents’ Day. Or is that Presidents Day? Or President’s Day?
Well….it depends on which expert you ask! Here is the run down:
1. It is NOT President’s Day
a. President’s denotes one President…and this holiday honors Washington and Lincoln both…as well as all presidents
b. President’s Day says that it is the day that belongs to one President (singular)
c. It follows the rule of writing the noun first (President) then if the word does NOT end in s, put apostrophe s (President’s Day)
2. Some say it is Presidents’ Day
a. The Gregg Reference Manual (my favorite handbook) cites it as such
b. This denotes many presidents all owning one day (or at least Lincoln and Washington)
c. It follows the rule of writing the noun first (Presidents) then if the word ends in s, put an apostrophe on the outside of the s
d. This is the correct way to show possession of one thing to more than one “owner”
3. Some say it is Presidents Day
a. The Associated Press Stylebook cites is as such
b. This method does not denote possession, but rather uses the word President as an adjective (actually a “proper adjective” in that it is an adjective made from a proper noun–some of the time–we will not even get into whether it is (President) or isn’t (president) in this post!)
c. This is like saying that, that is a Grisham book (as opposed to a book that Grisham owns–Grisham’s book), and it is certainly not incorrect
So there you have it! More subjectivity in our English language. Happy Presidents’ Day! And Happy Presidents Day!
