Help! Embroidering a family name. Do you put it like this The Smiths or The Smith's? Thanks Kathy

Ah how I love OLD SCHOOL. Many people donot understand the proper punctuation. Nice to see.

AAAhhh and English Lesson. the' shows possession. the Smith's home etc. so The Smiths would b correct. *

Thank you all for your help.

I would also say The Smiths . If you put eg. The Smith's Towels then you would put in the ( ' )

Hugs Yvonne

The Smiths


or you can do "The Smith Family"

1 comment

by kathyjt 05 Jan 2010

I like this too.

's is always possessive, never the plural, so it should be The Smiths - at least that is what I was taught during the grammar lessons at my teacher training course. But I'm not a native speaker.

If the surname is Smith, you put it The Smiths. When put The Smit's car or house or whatever is when you use the aposthophy 's. Hope this will help. Annatjie

You would embroider it The Smiths. You would put
the inverted comma before the last "S" if you wanted
to put something that belongs to them, like "The
Smith's House", that's what I was taught at school
many years ago, and I hope I was taught right!

I think if the last name is Smith, then you would put "The Smith's". If the name is Smiths, with an S , then put it as that.

1 comment

by keeponsewing 05 Jan 2010

I think it would be The Smiths. Because the other way would say, The Smith is. My school english is rusty but I'm sure that is the way it should be.