No Apostrophes in Plurals!

I see this time and time again: someone takes an ordinary word and adds an apostrophe and s, thinking the word is now plural. NO. That’s not the way we do it.

In English, we create regular plurals of words by adding s or es to the word. There is no apostrophe for pure plurals – ever.

The examples shown below come from LinkedIn descriptions I have recently read (the details have been changed to protect the innocent).

NO: We work with architect’s, interior designer’s, and builder’s.
YES: We work with architects, interior designers, and builders.

NO: I love cat’s, dog’s, and squirrel’s.
YES: I love cats, dogs, and squirrels.

NO: I enjoy eating pizza’s, taco’s, and hamburger’s.
YES: I enjoy eating pizzas, tacos, and hamburgers.

NO: Monday’s and Tuesday’s are not my favorite day’s of the week.
YES: Mondays and Tuesdays are not my favorite days of the week.

NO: I was talking with my kid’s, who are teen’s now, and they disagreed with me.
YES: I was talking with kids, who are teens now, and they disagreed with me.

It breaks my heart to see these and other easily corrected errors, especially here on LinkedIn, because we are often judged on our ability to create professional presentations with correct punctuation and word usage.

4 thoughts on “No Apostrophes in Plurals!

  1. Carnie Wilson

    It is difficult to correctly write plurals these days because auto-correct will change Mondays to Monday’s. In fact, it just happened to me while writing the previous sentence! The struggle is real!

  2. Susan Rooks Post author

    Agree 100% Carnie Wilson! auto-correct is good, but sometimes just plain wrong! Thanks for commenting!

  3. Elisabeth Ann Scott, MD

    Yes, what’s up with autocorrect and suggested text? Maybe it just remembers common spellings and misspellings! I hate it because it basically teaches people the wrong rules!

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