Friday, January 20, 2012

I have something to say.

I've just gotta do this. It's practically not even an option.

Now, before I do it, I've gotta tell you: we've all been there. I'm not trying to offend you. I'm not calling anyone out specifically. I've just noticed a little teeny tiny something that is begging to be blogged about.


I repeat: I've done this too.


Okay, disclaimer over. Here it goes:


NO APOSTROPHES IN NAME PLURALS.


NOT EVER.


What do I mean by that?


I mean that the plural of my last name, "Harris," is NOT "Harris's." Or "Harris'." It's Harrises.


As in "The Harrises are weird about their punctuation."

You are talking about more than one Harris. No apostrophe.

The Smiths.

The Joneses.

The Browns.

The Clarks.

The Johnsons.

If you include an apostrophe, you are making the word possessive, and you must include something that the people own, like:

"The Harrises' house has artwork depicting punctuation in it." (It doesn't...yet.)

"The Smiths' biggest fear is that the Harrises will come over for dinner and only talk about punctuation."

Does this make sense? Okay.

But really, it's okay if you've made this mistake. I make mistakes with my grammar/punctuation/life all the time...sometimes on purpose (except for the life one, I think). So please don't be offended. We can all just agree to keep it in mind, right? Right.

Sing it with me: "And the world will be a better place."

5 comments:

  1. I knew it!!! The apostrophe just never makes sense in that situation.

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  2. yeah i don't know jack squat about aprostophes. am i supposed to use one there??! i don't know, i'm so freakin confused!

    i just think being wrong in my case is just better for me. hahaha

    thank you for the lesson. :) awesome!

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  3. I loved this. I would actually appreciate more grammar advice in the future.
    I remember zoning out in school during punctuation lessons and thinking, "I should probably pay attention to this stuff."

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  4. I love this post. You Harrises are pretty great.

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  5. I'm totally with you! But you actually taught me something. I always thought it was "The Harris' house has artwork depicting punctuation in it."

    ReplyDelete

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