Tag: apostrophe

Posted on

The grammar of Mother’s Day – or is it Mothers’ Day? Or Mothers Day?

A hand holds three long-stemmed flowers: one white, one yellow, and one pink.
Photo by Elena Koycheva on Unsplash

How do you even begin to write the card? Happy Mother’s Day? Or is it Mothers’ Day? Maybe it’s Mothers Day. Where does the apostrophe go? Do you need one? Is it correct to capitalise those words? I’ll try to unscramble the grammar of the day’s title: what you write to your mother after that is up to you.

Apostrophe or no apostrophe?

It’s a tricky little punctuation mark, the apostrophe. Does it have a place here? Grammatically, you could argue for both being correct:

    • If you consider the day to belong to your mother, your mothers, or to all mothers, then it would be grammatically correct to use an apostrophe to show possession. After all, if it were her birthday, you’d write ‘Mum’s birthday’ on the calendar.
    • If you consider that Mothers simply describes what type of day it is, then it would be grammatically correct to omit the apostrophe. In this case, Mothers acts as an attributive adjective (an adjective that goes before the noun it describes). If your mum is a fan of the Beatles, then she would be a Beatles fan, not a Beatles’ fan.

Single possession or plural possession?

If there’s to be an apostrophe, do you follow that with an s or not? Again, grammatically, you could argue for them both being correct:

    • If it’s the day you celebrate your mother, and if you have only one (or you have more but they’re getting a card each), then you could argue that single possession is appropriate and write ‘Mother’s Day’.
    • If it’s the day you celebrate all mothers, or if you have more than one, then you could argue that plural possession is appropriate and write ‘Mothers’ Day’.

Capitalised or lowercase?

Here, it’s a bit simpler. Both parts form the name of the special day, and so both parts are capitalised.

If, however, you were talking about another day when you treated your mum, then you would certainly lowercase day. Whether you lowercase mother as well would depend upon whether that is being used as a proper noun or a common noun:

Common noun: Tomorrow’s your mother’s day, so it’s up to her what we do.

Proper noun: It’s Mother’s birthday. So, as it’s Mother’s day, we’ll do what she wants.

Is there a definitive answer?

It’s all very well knowing that you could argue your case whichever option you choose, but you’d probably rather avoid a debate on the subject.

Trying to find consistency with other celebrated days in the calendar doesn’t help much:

    • We give saints’ days apostrophes. And you can easily see if there’s just one being celebrated – St Valentine’s Day, St David’s Day, St George’s Day, etc. – or more than one – All Saints’ Day
    • The US has a holiday to honour all military veterans, but treats Veterans as an attributive adjective – Veterans Day, as first proclaimed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower

If you’re in the UK, you could swerve the issue and write ‘Mothering Sunday’. This is the correct title of the festival observed on the fourth Sunday in Lent. The day is traditionally about returning to your mother church but is now widely used to honour mothers.

Having a special day to honour mothers originated the US, where it is celebrated on the second Sunday in May. It was founded by the remarkable Anna Jarvis. Her motto for the day was:

“For the Best Mother who Ever Lived—Your Mother.”

From that, it’s clear that it was conceived as a day to celebrate your own mother, rather than mothers in general. Indeed, the proclamation by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914 uses single possession – Mother’s Day.

Conclusion

Armed with this information, you can fend off just about any punctuation choice in your greeting for this special day – provided you capitalise both words. But you can’t go wrong with:

    • Mothering Sunday: if you’re celebrating the UK church festival
    • Mother’s Day: if you’re honouring your mum

Now you’re all set for the day set aside for honouring your mother. When it comes to the equivalent day for your father – which has the same date in the US and the UK, the third Sunday in June – you can apply the same reasoning. Just don’t call it ‘Fathering Day’ – that might give entirely the wrong idea!

As you’ll have seen, there’s a lot more to English punctuation than a single, simple rule to follow. You shouldn’t face criticism for how you’ve punctuated a greetings card (which is ‘greeting card’ in US English, just to add to the mix), but in other forms of writing, it will make a difference.

Whatever you’re writing, try not to get too hung up on small details, at least in the first draft. Get your ideas down and check the punctuation later or let someone do that for you. A professional editor or proofreader will not judge you for mistakes – we all make them. If you would like me to help you to present the best version of your writing, please get in touch here.

Hypertext links to other websites are for the convenience of users only and do not constitute any endorsement or authorisation by me.

 

Posted on

Apostrophes – a problem shared

Apostrophes tend to divide folk – some get them, some don’t; some champion them, others want to do away with them. Whatever your view, they are part of our language. And if your intention is to write things that others will read, it’s best to get to grips with apostrophes in order to make your writing clear – and avoid a potential backlash.

When I saw this headline on the back page of a newspaper (I won’t name the publication – mistakes happen)

‘BIG SAM’S AND PEP’S BROMANCE’

my immediate thought was not about the story, but about the messages about punctuation that might be heading the way of the editorial team. How should that headline, suggesting something shared, have been punctuated?

Apostrophe with big eyes and slight smile.

Apostrophes – a reminder of the basics

Apostrophes are used to show two things:

    • Contraction: where two words have been smushed together, the apostrophe takes the place of the omitted letter or letters:

It is ➜ It’s

    • Possession: where one noun belongs to or is related to another, the apostrophe shows that relationship:

The whiskers of the cat ➜ The cat‘s whiskers

If the noun is singular and ends in an s, then it is still followed by ’s in order to make it clear that the noun is singular:

The sister of James ➜ James’s sister

There is one exception to the use of the possessive apostrophe: if the pronoun it has possession of something, then following the usual rules would produce the same result as for a contraction; to make the meaning clear, therefore, the apostrophe is omitted:

The head belonging to it ➜ Its head

Apostrophes and plurals

This is where most apostrophe-related problems seem to occur, but the main things to remember are:

    • Never use an apostrophe to show that something is plural:

More than one pie ➜ pies, not pie’s

    • Although you must not use apostrophes to show that something is plural, you still need to use them to show where a plural noun has possession of or a relationship to another. Where the plural ends in an s, it is necessary to include just the apostrophe to make it clear that the noun is plural:

The books of more than one author ➜ The authors’ books

The books of more than one child ➜ The children’s books

Shared possession

Here’s where it seems to have tripped up the headline writer. Where more than one person has a thing they share as a unit, the possessive apostrophe goes after the last name making up that unit:

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor married each other twice, so we would refer to those as Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor‘s marriages.

Collective possession

On the other hand, where more than one person has their own collection of the same thing, the possessive apostrophe goes after each of the names:

Richard Burton and Joan Collins were each married several times, but none of those marriages were to each other. We would therefore refer to Richard Burton’s and Joan Collins‘s marriages.

Conclusion

I don’t profess to know anything about Big Sam or Pep except that they have something to do with football. I do know, however, that a bromance is something that is shared; associating their names with that emotion suggests they share it. Therefore, the headline should have been written like this:

BIG SAM AND PEP’S BROMANCE

Apostrophes have a habit of creeping in or being left out however well we understand them. If you have a story to tell, then I would say that you should get on with that and check the punctuation later or let someone do that for you. A professional editor or proofreader will not judge you for mistakes – as I said earlier, these things happen. If you would like me to help you to present the best version of your writing, please get in touch here.

Hypertext links to other websites are for the convenience of users only and do not constitute any endorsement or authorisation by me.