Help needed with my English, sorry!

[bluebellforest]

Hi,
Posted her for traffic, sorry.

English language is definitely not my strong point. So I am asking for some help please.

I am wanting to make some Christmas signs for my family, but I am not sure whether I need apostrophes or not 😣

So, the sign will be:
Christmas at the McSweeny's
Is that apostropy right?

Also:
Christmas at the James's
Would it be James's or James's

Argh, please help!
Thank you!

The 2nd James was meant to be James'

Christmas at the McSweenys’ (as there is more than one of you)

Christmas at the James'

I'd say yes to McSweeney's because you could add the word house at the end, so the apostrophe indicates the possessive.

I'd also do James' (or maybe James's, but I'm not one to usually add an s after s').

McSweeny's is correct. The apostrophe shows possession.

It can be James's or James'. Both are correct too!

[I am probably about to be corrected, LOL]

Good point, church, I didn't think about more than one!

I would do

Christmas with the McSweeny Family

Just so I could be sure it was right!

I'm fairly sure it should be McSweeny's and James' although James's may also be acceptable.

I'll ask DD when she gets in - she's the grammar police in this house. 😁

To be fair, I doubt anyone would have issue with McSweeny’s.

Yes to McSweeny's.
and it is James'

Easy way to remember is that it is 's when the ' is taking the place of a missing word. So in your first example that other way to write it would be:
Christmas at the home of the McSweenys
Take out the home and replace it with 's

Hope this makes sense!

Good point, church, I didn't think about more than one!
Now I'm not sure either. Perhaps it should also be Jameses'

Could you change at to with to circumvent the issue?

When the name ends in an ‘s’ you don’t need to repeat the ‘s’ for the possessive, but you can, so in this case, with a plural, James’s or James’ would be fine.

No, it should be McSweeneys'. The house doesn't belong to 'the McSweeney', it belongs to a collection of McSweeneys. It is the McSweeneys' house. So Christmas at the McSweeneys'. You need to make a possessive from the plural, not a possessive from a singular. Unless the McSweeney's is the name of a pub or restaurant!

Likewise, Christmas at the Jameses'. Or you could say 'Christmas with the McSweeneys/Christmas with the Jameses' and have no need for any apostrophes!

Christmas at the McSweenys' - possessive, yes, but there are multiple McSweenys

Christmas at the Jameses' - the family (multiple ppl) are the Jameses, and the apostrophe is possessive

Jameses’ looks like it should rhyme with Rameses. 😂

Nothing to add, but don't apologise! There's no need to apologise when you're asking for help you know you need!

Of course after all that I misspelled McSweeny But that aside, the methodology is the same.

No! It's Christmas at the McSweenys' if you are talking about more than one McSweeny. It's the home or house of the McSweenys, not of the McSweeny. Put the apostrophe for possession after the last letter you hear when you turn the phrase round and use of instead of the s.

Trust me, I wrote the book.

Likewise with James (tricky one) if you'd say the home of the Jameses (and most people would) it's Christmas at the Jameses'. It looks weird but it's correct.

Solve the problem by using with instead of at and you can forget apostrophes, though people will have to be told where, of course!

And definitely don't apologise! I deal with stuff like this for a living and things like this still give me pause sometimes. They're a bit like a logical puzzle you have to work through.

Celebelly and CharDee know what they're about! 👍

Presumably you're the McSweenys - i.e. your name is McSweeny and there's more than one of you.

So the possessive is McSweenys'

1 x McSweeny
2 x McSweenys
Something belonging to more than one of you: McSweenys'

James's or James' are both correct. Names ending with S are the only time I can think that there's a choice of either and both are correct.

Is the family name WcSweeny or McSweeys?

If its McSweenys its McSweenys'

If its McSweeny its McSweeny's

James can be James' or James's both are correct but the first looks better!

I would say at the James's if you're going to pronounce it James-es. The apostrophe indicates possession ( the house belonging to the James family)
But if you were to write Christmas WITH instead of Christmas AT, then it would be the Jameses plural, no apostrophe.

Nooo stop posting wrong stuff! It just makes things more confusing. OP, take your pick of my, @NearlyGranny's or @CharDeeMacDennis's contributions to the thread as all are correct. I'm
sure people are meaning well, but posting incorrect stuff just makes it more difficult for OP to wade through and muddies the water.

I think the modern advice with the tricky James one (where both are ok) is use the extra S if you'd pronounce it aloud. So if you'd say St James's use it, if not don't. There are examples historically which would probably be different today. So St Thomas' Hospital in London has signs without the second S whereas these days we would probably use the double S for Thomas. The hospital's name will always be St Thomas' I imagine!

Both James' birthday and James's birthday are grammatically correct. it's up to you! Use the version which best matches how you would pronounce it. Use James's if you pronounce it "Jamesiz", but use James' if you pronounce it "James".