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Apostrophes with Names Ending in s, ch, or z

Are you confused about how to show the plural and the possessive of certain names? Maybe you know to write I met the Smiths, I drove Brenda Smith’s Ferrari, and I visited the Smiths’ house. But what if the name is Sanchez or Church or Williams?

Rule: To show the plural of a name that ends in s, ch, or z, add es.

Examples:
The Sanchezes will be over soon.
The Thomases moved away.

Rule: To show singular possession of a name ending in s, ch, or z, use the apostrophe and another s.

Examples:
Bill Williams’s car
Harry Birch’s house
Mrs. Sanchez’s children

Rule: To show plural possession of a name ending in s, ch, or z, form the plural first; then immediately use the apostrophe.

Examples:
the Williamses’ car
the Birches’ house
the Sanchezes’ children

Pop Quiz

Choose the correct proper noun in each sentence below. The original proper noun is in parentheses.

1. I’m going to marry Ms. Straus’/Strauses’/Straus’s daughter. (Straus)

2. The Ortiz’/Ortizes’/Ortiz’s dog bit the mailman. (Ortiz)

3. My son can’t seem to get enough of Sandi Finches/Finches’/Finch’s fried chicken. (Finch)

4. The Ames/Amess/Ameses are coming home from vacation tomorrow. (Ames)

Pop Quiz Answers

1. I’m going to marry Ms. Straus’s daughter.

2. The Ortizes’ dog bit the mailman.

3. My son can’t seem to get enough of Sandi Finch’s fried chicken.

4. The Ameses are coming home from vacation tomorrow.

Posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 9:17 am

Into vs. In To

How does one know when to use into or in to?

One of the main uses of the preposition into is to indicate movement toward the inside of a place.

Examples
The children jumped into the lake for a swim.
Mom drove the car into the garage.

In to is the adverb in followed by the preposition to.

Examples:
He turned his paper in to the teacher.
The administrators wouldn’t give in to the demands of the protesters.

We will explore into vs. in to in more depth in a future blog.

Pop Quiz

  1. As a child, I was too afraid to go into/in to the Halloween haunted house.
  2. I’m going to turn the wallet I found into/in to the police.
  3. If your battery is running low, you’ll need to plug your power cord into/in to the socket.

Answers

  1. into
  2. in to
  3. into

Posted on Saturday, July 18th, 2009 at 10:02 pm