Christmas Cards: The Ultimate Holiday Humiliators

 

Happy holidays from the Smith's!

Seasons greetings from the Thomas's!

If you don't know what's wrong with those two sentences -- or how to fix them -- step away from that box of holiday cards and listen to this.

[audio:http://www.grammarunderground.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/0025-Happy-Holidays-from-the-Thomases-mp3.mp3|titles=0025 Happy Holidays from the Thomases]

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 27th, 2011 at 8:00 am and is filed under this week's podcast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Christmas Cards: The Ultimate Holiday Humiliators”

  1. November 27, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    Wish you'd addressed last names ending in a Z in this. Happy Holidays from the Gonzalezes? the Gonzalezs? the Gonzali? That would help a large segment of the population at least here in Texas. I believe I know the answer, but this podcast would have been the logical place to address it.

  2. November 28, 2011 at 11:02 pm

    Hmmm. You're right. I should've included that. Here's what I would have said:

    To form the plural of a last name ending in Z, add ES.
    One Gonzalez, two Gonzalezes.
    So, yes, it's: Happy holidays from the Gonzalezes.

    To make just one possessive, add apostrophe and S (the major styles all seem to prefer this now over adding just the apostrophe).
    Mr. Gonzalez's house (instead of Mr. Gonzalez' house, though this S-less form may still be preferred by some).

    To make the plural into a possessive, as always, just add the apostrophe.
    The Gonzalezes' new house.

    (While I like your Gonzali idea, it's similar to the Prii plural of Prius idea, which I wrote about in this older blog post: ).