If you must keep up with the Joneses, be sure to spell their name right.
I’ve recently noticed an array of failed attempts at pluralizing family names. Sometimes, the attempts contain errant apostrophes; other times, when an apostrophe would be appropriate, the names have none.
Here’s the general rule: When you’re referring to multiple members of a single family, you simply add an ‘s’ at the end of the name. For example, if you’re speaking of the Lexington mayor’s family, call them the Gortons. No apostrophes. Kentucky’s governor is a member of the Beshears. UK’s president is among a family of Capiloutos. (Not Capiloutoes, like potatoes.)
Things get slightly more complicated when a family name ends with an s, x, z, ch, sh or th. In these cases, you pluralize the name by adding es. Thus, the Fox family are the Foxes, the Fitz family the Fitzes, and the Fitch family the Fitches.
Things get even trickier when you want to make a family name possessive. The apostrophe comes after the last ‘s’. For example, the home that belongs to the Foxes is the Foxes’ home. The children of Gov. and Mrs. Beshear are the Beshears’ children. And that stunning silver Lexus that belongs to the Jones family – that’s the Joneses’ car.
A further wrinkle on plurals: You know those nouns — like total and majority — that sometimes refer to a group of people and other times to individual people in a group? “The American majority is correct” refers to the majority of the single group; thus, it’s correct to say, “The American majority is…” If, instead, you say, “The majority of American voters are correct,” you are thinking of individuals. In this case, we use the plural “are.”
The difference is subtle, and you probably won’t be challenged either way. To make your decision, ask yourself whether you are thinking of the whole or the parts. The whole is singular; the parts are plural.
Neil Chethik, aka the Grammar Gourmet, is executive director of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning (www.carnegiecenterlex.org) and author of “FatherLoss” and “VoiceMale.” The Carnegie Center offers writing classes and seminars for businesses and individuals. Contact Chethik at neil@carnegiecenterlex.org or 859-254-4175.
