This was from a local spot that I like to frequent with friends.

This was from a local spot that I like to frequent with friends.
A reader sent this picture to me from her local Wendy’s. Just looking at this sign, apparently, they have already filled all their positions because they WERE hiring, but now they’re not. If they are currently looking, it should be WE’RE (contraction for “we are”) hiring. Obviously, Wendy’s knows how to use apostrophes since it is part of their name.
Sorry fellas. It looks like this special club is for only one gentleman at a time. Otherwise, it would be a “gentlemen’s” club. I found this one on my Bar Rescue marathon recently. I particularly liked that Jon Taffer, the star of the show, mentioned that it was misspelled. Now whether he knew that or one of the people working behind the scenes mentioned it, I don’t know, but they did and it caught my attention. When making a word possessive, start with the correct root word. In this case, since the club is for gentlemEn, it should be a gentlemen’s club. And it SHOULD have an apostrophe!
I found this on a trip. Again, this shows the use of apostrophes to show pluralization. Apostrophes are used for contractions and to show possession NOT to make a word plural.
I took this photo on the way to work the other day.
A friend sent this to me. I’m not sure why they have the apostrophe “s” on cookie and “shortbread” should be one word when you’re talking about a shortbread cookie.
This was a picture I took of a Christmas gift for my youngest granddaughter. It highlights the improper use of an apostrophe. What exactly belongs to Barbie? Or are you talking about more than one Barbie? Perhaps you’re talking about 20 Barbies? If this had said 20 Barbies and Barbie’s accessories, then the apostrophe in the second “Barbie” would be correct because you’re talking about accessories belonging to Barbie. As it is here, the apostrophe is incorrect because you’re talking about 20 Barbies so it is plural NOT possessive.
As you may know, rogue apostrophes are my pet peeve. I took this picture myself on a recent shopping trip. The apostrophe is not necessary to make that word plural.
Since some people will be sending out holiday cards and/or letters soon (if they haven’t already), I thought it was time to rerun a blog post about making last names plural and possessive. If you are sending cards out for your whole family, please pay attention to this.
A reader asked me to address possessives with a proper name. I mentioned it in an article early on (see Apostrophail!), but we will delve into it here.
The first rule–the most important thing to remember when working with surnames (a person’s last name)–is do not change a person’s name. You can’t add an apostrophe before an “s” when the surname ends in “s.” For instance, do not make the name “Andrews” possessive by putting the apostrophe between the “w” and the “s.” That is changing the spelling of Andrews. A person’s name is the most personal thing they have. Don’t mess that up! So here are some tips for making surnames plural and possessive.
To make most surnames plural, you add an “s.”
That means more than one Smith went to the party. Where the surname ends in s, x, ch, sh, or z, you should add es to make the name plural.
However, if adding es makes the name hard to pronounce, just use the s.
As for possessives, to make most surnames possessive, add an apostrophe and an “s.”
For these surnames that are plural and possessive, make them plural by adding an “s” and then add an apostrophe to make them possessive.
Where surnames end in “s,” to make them possessive, pronounce the word. If you say the extra “s,” you add apostrophe and “s.”
You would pronounce it “Joneses,” so you add the apostrophe and “s.” Where the surname ends in “s” and making it plural adds an extra syllable that makes it awkward to pronounce, add only the apostrophe.
You would not pronounce it “Andrewses,” so you only add the apostrophe. Where you are talking about a surname that ends in “s” and you want it plural and possessive, make it plural first and then follow the rules on making it possessive.
You make Jones plural by adding “es” because it ends in “s,” but adding apostrophe and “s” after that would make it difficult to pronounce (Joneseses) so you just add the apostrophe.
Again, the main thing to remember is not to change the basic spelling of a person’s name. Start with their name spelled correctly, and then figure out how to make it plural and/or possessive.
Hopefully this is helpful. Don’t upset a person by misspelling their name. Possessives and plurals aren’t difficult if you think about the base word you are trying to change.
This was in a restaurant ad that I found on their homepage. One more time, you don’t make words plural by adding an apostrophe.