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Guest Posted 22 years ago
Grammar

Apostrophe use with proper name ending in a vowel

Where the subjects of this sentence have a last name of "Sosta", which is correct?

"Over the past twelve years, the Sosta’s have developed a reputation as two of the more personable and knowledgeable members of the paintball industry."
or
"Over the past twelve years, the Sostas have developed a reputation as two of the more personable and knowledgeable members of the paintball industry."
or
"Over the past twelve years, the Sostas' have developed a reputation as two of the more personable and knowledgeable members of the paintball industry."
  

Top answer

In this case, you are not talking about possession; you are refering to a whole family, so the last name (or surname) is pluralized without any apostophe. In such a case, the second sentence is the right one. Cheers!

— Raul

  • In this case, you are not talking about possession; you are refering to a whole family, so the last name (or surname) is pluralized without any apostophe.
  • In such a case, the second sentence is the right one.
  • Cheers!
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20 Answers
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In this case, you are not talking about possession; you are refering to a whole family, so the last name (or surname) is pluralized without any apostophe. In such a case, the second sentence is the right one.

Cheers!
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0Which is correct02br
02br
00Mr. and Mrs. Ye02br
02br
00the Ye's are going to go to dinner? should the apostrophe be used?0-
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0No, you should NOT use the apostrophe to make the plural. The Yes are going to dinner. 02br
02br
00If you are afraid will be taken for the word 01i00yes02i00, then write 01i00Mr. and Mrs. Ye are going go dinner02i00, or 01i00The Ye family is going to dinner02i00. 0-
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0 What about if your name ends in an S. My last name is Nuss. Which is correct to show plural - Nuss' or Nusses? 0-
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0 Nusses. The rules for pluralization don't change just because it's a last name. And, as stated above, there is no possession involved, so apostrophes have nothing to do with it.02br
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01i00mess - messes, kiss - kisses, ..., Nuss - Nusses02i02br
02br
00 CJ0-
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0I've looked all over for a definitive answer for names ending with an i.02br
02br
00The Martinis are coming to dinner.02br
02br
00The Sevieris are here now.02br
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00I seems adding only an 's' changes the pronunictiation of the name so it always 'feels' like I should add an apostrophe somehwere.02br
02br
00Additio
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0 That is the Martinis' car ; That is Mr Martini's car02br
02br
00Today is the Servieris' wedding anniversary ; Today is Mrs Servieri's birthday02br
02br
00The apostrophe is only used to indicate possession. It has nothing to do with pluralization.0-
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0The same way you would anything else.02br
02br
00This is Steve Martini's car.02br
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00This is the Martinis' house.02br
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00The Martinis are coming for dinner - no possessive, so no ' 0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Anonymous12cite10I seems adding only an 's' changes the pronunictiation of the name so it always 'feels' like I should add an apostrophe somehwere.12br
12br
10When it comes to pronunciation, names exist in a realm all their own. Elizabeth Smith will have her name pronounced as an English word, but if you ask a
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What about family names ending in s...how do you hyphenate the family of the Jones.

the Jones's family or the Jones' family
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