To tell teacher friend about grammar error?

[ImaSababa]

A friend of mine is a primary school teacher, and is making and selling cushions on Facebook. Lovely. The problem is, they're riddled with mistakes, such as "Christmas at the Johnson's" when surely is should be "Johnsons'".

Should I tell her?

I used to work in an organisation where the Chief Exec had fairly appalling grammar and occasionally used to send round drafts of proposed responses to various proposals. Some of them were really important and had potential financial consequences for the company. I couldn't bear the thought of these fairly illiterate horrors going out so I used to send back a corrected version; I would describe them as typos to try to allow him to save face a bit but he became quite sensitive about it.

He used to do yearly appraisals and always had a whinge because he felt my desk top was untidy. Ultimately we did a deal whereby we agreed that I would lay off his grammar if he laid off my desk. But I still used to correct the more egregious errors in his drafts surreptitiously.

Would you like to explain your claim FirstClassFlightHome?

MoonJelly has explained it very clearly and you still think you're right?

I also couldn't live with an ungrammatical cushion!

I saw a Friends-related Christmas jumper advertised on Facebook the other day.

“Could I BE anymore [sic] festive?”

My sister would have loved it, but I couldn’t bring myself to buy it for her because of the spelling error. So yes I think it would definitely put people off.

I would tell her in private as she will look dim, and especially bad if she is a teacher. If she sells the cushions and people are bound to notice and she could feel embarrassed.

oh, I like the "Zeus's lovers"

Lolll I have no fricking idea what is right now and I thought I was ok at this stuff! Thanks for messing with my head you lot

I can't believe how many people are arguing against the OP being right!!

I would expect a primary teacher to know, but even if they didn't I'd expect them to have an awareness of that being a common error that might need double-checking...

It seems very common on FB personalisation 'businesses' though and makes me cringe frequently.

I think you would say the Johnson residence or household, in which case she's right to then say Johnson's.

Randomly, the company selling the signs linked up thread appeared on my Facebook feed. Loads of comments from happy customers which all seem to get a response from the company but mine commenting on the incorrect apostrophes seems to have been ignored

@SummerHouse

May I offer.... The Johnsons's house.

JK Rowling uses this for James's so it must be acceptable.

Yes this works for possessive names but the OP is talking about a plural surname, so no second S

@Oulu

I used to work in an organisation where the Chief Exec had fairly appalling grammar and occasionally used to send round drafts of proposed responses to various proposals. Some of them were really important and had potential financial consequences for the company. I couldn't bear the thought of these fairly illiterate horrors going out so I used to send back a corrected version; I would describe them as typos to try to allow him to save face a bit but he became quite sensitive about it.

He used to do yearly appraisals and always had a whinge because he felt my desk top was untidy. Ultimately we did a deal whereby we agreed that I would lay off his grammar if he laid off my desk. But I still used to correct the more egregious errors in his drafts surreptitiously.

See I'd love to be corrected if I were wrong. We never stop learning and it's better than constantly getting it wrong to a wider audience, I'd have thought.

As an old-school secretary I couldn't put out letters with spelling mistakes as I'd feel I'd failed in my job.

Still, I've learned to never give advice to anyone ever for any reason even if they seem to be inviting it (learned the hard way). I would give advice here as it's anonymous and people are specifically asking.

I work it’s people who scatter random commas through very long sentences.

My grammar is not perfect, so I am always self conscious about correcting others.

I'm assuming all those - and possibly the OP's friend - saying Johnson's have the same "autocorrect" issue that I have on my phone in that, despite me typing Johnsons', it changes it to singular.

English is not my first language. I wish people would correct my mistakes. For years I wrote out cheques with xxx pounds and yy pences.

It's a collective group - the Johnsons are one entity so it is right to use an apostrophe before the 's' to indicate singular possession. The Johnson family collectively own the home. E.g. you say the team's ball and not the teams' ball as team is a collective noun.Your friend is correct.

No, that is completely wrong. When you refer to 'the Johnsons', you are using a plural, not referring to a singular entity! Otherwise why would it have a plural 's' on the end?! You're not referring to 'the Johnson', are you? Another clue is that you would use a plural verb with it - "The Johnsons are...",not "The Johnsons is..."

Yes, a family is a singular noun, so if you were using that word in the sentence it would have an apostrophe before the 's' if using the possessive - "The Johnson family's car" for example. But the OP's friend is not using the singular noun 'family'. She is using the plural noun 'the Johnsons'.

@RedHelenB

I think you would say the Johnson residence or household, in which case she's right to then say Johnson's.

No, because household and residence are singular nouns and, in that context, "Johnson" is simply a descriptor of the noun. But in the term "The Johnsons", Johnsons is unquestionably a plural noun.

@StCharlotte

I'm assuming all those - and possibly the OP's friend - saying Johnson's have the same "autocorrect" issue that I have on my phone in that, despite me typing Johnsons', it changes it to singular.

But if I were basing my income on it, wouldn't it be a good idea to run an eye over the final thing?

But if I were basing my income on it, wouldn't it be a good idea to run an eye over the final thing?

Well obviously.

(Although as a typist it's very hard to spot your own errors because you see what you expect to see.)

Sounds like it might be a problem with the manufacturers.

My surname ends with an S so I'm not even going there

My god, the number of people who have said OP is incorrect.. I have worked as a proofreader and editor for the past 10 years since graduating, and some people's grasp of basic spelling and grammar is shocking.

So, the correct options would be ..

Christmas at the Johnsons'
Christmas with the Johnsons

Even though I get irrational rage at poor grammar sometimes, I think it's rude to pick someone up on it on social media etc.

However, if this friend is selling these cushions, I think it would be the kind thing to do to let her know about her error - because she could get people asking for refunds and she obviously wouldn't be able to sell the incorrectly printed product to anyone else. So tell her if you're actually concerned about the success of her venture, but not if you're just smug because a teacher has made a mistake.

I'm a professional as I mentioned and I bet people could find a mistake in this post and most others I write (I don't proofread on mumsnet!!) but they'd be pointing it out because it's so hilarious that a professional proofreader made a mistake. Don't let that angle be your motivation.

I can't believe all the people who are so certain that the OP is wrong. The only way 'The Johnson's House' would be correct is if the house belongs to 'The Johnson', therefore showing possession by adding the apostrophe s on the end. As the house belongs to many Johnsons, there is already an 's' on the end to show that it is a plural. Then it needs the apostrophe after the 's' to show possession. So it is 'The Johnsons' House'.

For anyone who's still arguing the toss, please read this:

www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/what-happens-to-names-when-we-make-them-plural-or-possessive#:~:text=Names%20are%20pluralized%20like%20regular,Smith's%20car).

"Possession And Names
If you want to talk about something that belongs to more than one member of a family, you start with the plural form and add an apostrophe to show possession:

the Smiths' car

a party at the Fernandezes' house

the Daleys' driveway"

@TheMobileSiteMadeMeSignup

Nope. Shortened version of Christmas at the Johnson's house.

Plural version would be Christmas with the Johnsons.

This isn't right either!

The only way 'The Johnson's House' would be correct is if the house belongs to 'The Johnson', therefore showing possession by adding the apostrophe s on the end. As the house belongs to many Johnsons, there is already an 's' on the end to show that it is a plural. Then it needs the apostrophe after the 's' to show possession. So it is 'The Johnsons' House'.
I think we need to see how many members of the Johnson family are named on the house deeds before we can definitively make a decision on the place of the apostrophe.

English is not my first language. I wish people would correct my mistakes. For years I wrote out cheques with xxx pounds and yy pences.

Loads of native English speakers get mixed up with pence, though. They wouldn't say 'pences', but they would say 'one pence', even though they'd never dream of saying 'one pounds'. They are quite likely to blame for your own understandable confusion - if you hear a native speaker saying 'one pence', why on earth wouldn't you assume that it would be 'two pences'?

It's even worse with the word 'dice'. I would estimate that 99% of native English speakers think that it's a singular word - to the extent that if somebody correctly says 'throw the die', they will look at you like you are stupid and will often try to 'correct' you. Even companies that make and sell games don't seem to understand and will mention 'dice' in the playing instructions, even though they've only supplied one.

Unfortunately, if enough people believe something false, it ends up becoming de facto 'true'; and the truth becomes considered to be 'false'.

@Sometimesonly 😆