Happy New Year! Welcome to Apostrophe Philosophy
It is never too late to learn how to use the apostrophe. Starting with this here holiday
Perhaps not unsurprisingly, I have a lot of feelings about apostrophes.
Like, a lot.
And I’m going to share many of them with you over the next several weeks, as I embark upon a series here that I will call Apostrophe Philosophy.
When I was in college we had a thing called Jan Term, where you only took one class during January but it was a little more intense than a regular class - more discussion-oriented, more collaborative.
That’s my goal for Apostrophe Philosophy. Spend a few weeks learning just about this one little punctuation mark that causes everyone so much trouble, and come out on the other side refreshed and ready to tackle even quote marks! (Don’t worry, that’s going to be a whole other series.)
Today, though, I want to discuss the new year. More specifically, when you use an apostrophe with it and when you don’t.
For our purposes today, the apostrophe denotes possession, not pluralization. There are other uses of the apostrophe, including, yes, one (ONE! I cannot emphasize this enough. ONE.) case in which it does make something plural. I will touch on this in the coming weeks. But today, we’re focusing just on the usage around the New Year holiday.
So, New Year’s Eve. Correct! Eve means the night before. We use an apostrophe here because December 31 is the eve of the new year; the next day, the calendar flips over. It is the new year’s eve.
New Year’s Day. Correct! Use an apostrophe here because it is the day of the new year. The new year’s first day.
Happy New Year! No apostrophe here because there is no word after it, so nothing to belong to it. You are wishing someone well for the new year, that’s it.
Happy New Year’s!
So you never write (or speak! Please don’t even speak it) an apostrophe here. No Happy New Year’s or Happy New Years’. Go home, apostrophe, you’re drunk!
Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest. Sigh. There are a LOT of apostrophes here, but I will give them credit, they are all used appropriately. Let’s break it down.
Dick Clark’s. Dick Clark originated the Rockin’ New Year’s Eve celebration, so it belongs to him. Dick Clark (may he RIP) is the king of New Year’s Eve. Thus, we use an apostrophe after his name.
New Year’s — if you’ve read this far, at least you know that this is correct. It is the (rockin’) eve of the new year, thus, New Year’s.
Rockin’ Eve. This is a subject for another installment of Apostrophe Philosophy, but an apostrophe can denote a missing letter. In this case, the “g” in “rocking.” Dick Clark was too hip for a dumb old “g,” and thus, we have an extra apostrophe in this entirely too long title. But it is used appropriately; kudos to whomever at ABC copyedited this monstrosity.
I will leave it to you to determine if this year’s lineup of Kellie Pickler, the Jonas Brothers, Ne-Yo, Jesse McCartney, Natasha Bedingfield, Fall Out Boy, Solange, and Robin Thicke qualifies as “rockin’” or as a nightmare that you went back in time to sometime when very low-rise jeans were in style the first time and you can’t wake up. Also, didn’t we #metoo Robin Thicke out of relevance? But I digress.
With Ryan Seacrest. NO APOSTROPHE FOR YOU. It is Dick’s show, not yours, Ryan. You will always be a “with.”
Are you in for the rest of Apostrophe Philosophy? I hope so!
Love this. Know who gets it wrong wrong wrong? Apple autocorrect! They install an apostrophe all the time. For example, The Cogan-Drew’s are coming to dinner. Maybe you should send Tim Cook this article.
I’m looking forward to your discussion of proper nouns that end in S and get possessived (that’s not a word, is it?)