[Grammar] Surname Posessive - Going to the Walt's

[chadjchristensen]

I know that the sentence above and many others are entirely common, but I would like to know if they fall into the category of "used because no one knows the rules" or if I am missing a rule.

If I say, "I saw the Smiths," I am really saying, "I saw the Smith family." If someone insists on using the assumed object, and we were transcribing the speech, would we punctuate it as a posessive? "So happy that the Johnson's visited" seems to be a misplaced posessive but "So happy the Johnsons visited" seems to be uncommon.

I am a stickler for rules, so if this is a rule that everyone breaks, don't apologize for them! I like to know the facts hard and straight.

Thanks!

[Soup]

Hello Chad

There are many sources on this. Here is one:



Making Plurals of Names


If you want to make a name plural, it follows the same spelling rule as any other kind of noun. So we write that I live next door to the Smiths. No apostrophe--no letter is left out, the word is not possessive. We would also write that the Smiths live next to the Joneses. Here -es is added to Jones because the singular word ends in an s, just like we make dresses from dress.

Smith with an apostrophe s is possessive, just like any other noun. We could say I am Mr. Smith's neighbor. That is the normal rule for making possessives. There is nothing different about it because it is a name. If Smith is plural and possessive, we would follow the same pattern that we use for any other nouns: I am the Smiths' neighbor.

Source Plurals with Apostrophes and Other Questions You Asked

[konungursvia]

In Chaucer, we see Peteres for Peter's and so on. It's a genitive case.

But for the family name, we usually pluralize before adding the possessive:

To the Walts'.

K

[Soup]

Originally Posted by konungursvia

In Chaucer, we see Peteres for Peter's and so on. It's a genitive case.

But for the family name, we usually pluralize before adding the possessive:

To the Walts'.

K

I'm not sure what your post is in reference to.