To think this is grammatically incorrect....

[iamthegrinch]

A personalised key holder thing from a relative with "the smith's" in big letters at the top.

I'm certainly no expert when it comes to grammar, but this key holder is going to give me the fucking rage with the pointless apostrophe.

DH thinks no one will notice and he's not sure if it's wrong... thoughts please mn.

It is wrong, it should just be The Smiths

No it is right the keys belong to the smiths, so they are the smith's keys...

No capital letter?

Unless they were meaning the Smith's keys... then it would be correct

Yes it is wrong. Can you get another one? I doubt your relative will remember the apostrophe...

It should be "The Smiths" unless referring to the fact that the keys belong to the family in which case it would be "The Smiths' ".

"The Smith's" would suggest it belongs to one person who makes horseshoes.

Depends.
If it means the Family of all of the Smiths = The Smiths
The Keys belonging to the Smiths= the Smith’s keys

Isn’t the apostrophe in the wrong position rather than pointless? The key belonging to the Smiths, i.e. the Smiths’ keys?

Depends if it's The Smiths (plural, many people called Smith) or if it's short for The Smith's (keys).

It's wrong, as is putting a comma before but. Just saying......

Even if it is meant to be the Smiths’ keys, the apostrophe is still in the wrong place so wrong and wrong.

No, it's wrong. The keyring belongs to the Smiths (plural) so grammatically it would be the Smiths' keyring (apostrophe after the final S). But the Smiths on its own without any apostrophe is also fine. But the single apostrophe before the S is very wrong.

Ooh no I’m wrong. Unless there is only one Smith using the key holder! (Smith’s keys)

No it is right the keys belong to the smiths, so they are the smith's keys...

There is more than one Smith though.

the smith's - belonging to someone who works in metal
the Smiths' - belonging to the Smith family
the Smiths - the Smith family

Yes, it is wrong. If it’s just your name, as in ‘we are The Smiths’ there’s no apostrophe. The plural of Smith is Smiths. If you were going plural possesive for any reason it would be the Smiths’, as in ‘this is the smiths’ house’ but there would be no need. The Smith’s is just wrong!

www.simplemost.com/how-to-make-your-last-name-plural-for-upcoming-holiday-cards/

This explains how to make surnames plural. Never add an apostrophe to make something plural.

The possessive argument doesn't work. Even if they were the keys of the Smith family (which that is never how things are engraved or monogrammed), grammatically that would be "Smiths's" You have to pluralise it first before you make it possessive if you are talking about all of the Smiths (ie the Smith family).

MongerTruffle if the family is called Smith then something belonging to them would be the Smith's not Smiths'. Smiths' or Smiths's would be if the family was called Smiths.

Unless there's one of you, called The Smith

Solly that isn't right. It works for people (possessive people's) but not horses (possessive horses')

*It should be "The Smiths" unless referring to the fact that the keys belong to the family in which case it would be "The Smiths' ".

"The Smith's" would suggest it belongs to one person who makes horseshoes.*

I can’t put it any better than this. I couldn’t use this key ring either, it would irritate the life out of me.

sollyfromsurrey
You can't say "Smith went shopping" to talk about the whole family. It would be "The Smiths went shopping", so something referring to the Smiths is "the Smiths'".

MongerTruffle if the family is called Smith then something belonging to them would be the Smith's not Smiths'

Wrong. There is more than one person in the family. They are the Smiths. Sonething belonging to them is “the Smiths’” or “the Smiths’s”.

if the family is called Smith then something belonging to them would be the Smith's not Smiths'. Smiths' or Smiths's would be if the family was called Smiths.

Erm, nope!

solly - that's not right. The family is called Smith. In their plural form they are the Smiths (normal plural S on the end). The possessive form of a plural noun has the apostrophe after the final S. Just like the difference between the dog's bone (one dog) and the dogs' bone (more than one dog).

Is it just me who thinks that the word "Smith" is starting to look odd, having read it so much??