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.

We have a very nice curry house near us with a large, intricate, illuminated sign displaying its name: Flavour's.

One of these days, I must ask if I can speak to Mr/Ms Flavour directly and tell him/her what a fine establishment he/she is running

Ah, this thread reminds me of my annual battle with Year 5 over use of the possessive apostrophe. I concur Smiths' to show it belongs to the Smiths.

Granted probably not so much a problem with Smith, but if your family name was Ffffarquhar-Hetherington-de-la-Saucisson, it might be a giveaway to any internet-savvy burglars who found your keys should you accidentally drop them.

Having said that, though, it would be printed so tiny to fit all of that on, unless they routinely carried a microscope in their swag bag, you'd probably be OK

They belong to a blacksmith somewhere who is locked out of his house because you’ve got his keys. They are the smith’s.

Trucking you’re being very rude to people about grammar yet begin a sentence with Am instead of I am or I’m...

I’m shocked at how many people on this thread don’t understand apostrophes!

Monger has it right.

you don't start a sentence with but either

Well, clearly people can and do.

But for the excellent advice on this thread, people would be using apostrophes incorrectly.

Here are the rules I teach my Year Six:

Rule 1: Put an apostrophe after the owner or owners.
Rule 2: If it sounds as though it needs another s, write it down.

So:
Mary’s sweets
Marcus’s sweets
The children’s sweets
The boy’s sweets (sweets belonging to one boy)
The boys’ sweets (sweets belonging to all the boys)
The princess’s sweets
The princesses’ sweets

Now ‘sweets’ is looking as weird to me as ‘Smith’ was earlier...

No apostrophe required.

My maiden name ended in an S.
I used to be a manager in a call centre and our administration team would always put on apostrophe before the S.
For example, Jo Thoma’s team. (Not real name!) it used to drive me insane 😫

My favourite thing about these threads are the posters who are assertive to the point of rudeness but completely wrong. I would love to be that confident.

The Smiths' keys. Fellow English graduate and do copywriting as part of my job.

I'm well aware I used am at the start of a sentence and yes I know it isn't correct. I'm also aware that I'm being very forthright/probably rude - I just cba being anything other than direct. People can and do use whatever they want to start a sentence but it doesn't make it right. I'm also not wrong about but. As for the pp saying she had a English literature degree and then using a comma with and.......

You're wrong in thinking that punctuation rules are prescriptive.

the Smiths' keys - belonging to the family
the Smiths - the family

[editor here]

Smiths or Smiths' but definitely not Smith's, unless only one of you ever uses it! I'd have to burn it!

Truckingonandon "It's wrong, as is putting a comma before but. Just saying......"
^ Muphry's law in action.

And Muphry is...?

And Muphry is...?

Murphy.

The guy who ensures that if you ever post about grammar or spelling, there will be a typo in your post.

I've read the word Smith so often in this thread that it ceases to be a real word.