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Those S and ES Endings by Mary Deal



These endings have always troubled me until I finally decided to get it right. Compare the versions and pick out the correct usages in this name ending with the letter s.

The Joneses came for dinner.
The Jones’s came for dinner.
The Jones came for dinner.

John Joneses car stalled.
John Jones car stalled.
John Jones’s car stalled.

That Jones’s girl.
That Joneses girl.
That Jones girl.

The correct sentences are:

The Joneses came for dinner.
John Jones’s car stalled.
That Jones girl.

Some tips:

When a name ends with an s, and when speaking of the family as a group, add es, as in Joneses.
When speaking about something John Jones owned, it is his property and, therefore, an apostrophe and s shows ownership, as in Jones’s.
When speaking about a person in the singular, use only the name Jones.
However, when speaking about a group of girls all named Jones, you would write that sentence: The Jones girls. Notice that the name stays the same but the s is added to the word girl, stating more than one exists with that name.


Mary Deal

Author, Painter, Photographer
Eric Hoffer Book Award Winner
National Indie Excellence Book Awards Finalist (past)
Pushcart Prize Nominee
Global eBook Awards Nominee
2014 National Indie Excellence Book Awards Finalist
Global eBook Awards Bronze
Global eBook Awards Silver
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Comments

  1. Mary DealJuly 17, 2018 at 2:42 PM

    Thank you for posting my articles. I hope they are helping many find clarification in their writing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Linda Barnett-JohnsonJuly 17, 2018 at 2:43 PM

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

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