Here is how I am doing the plurals when describing whole family as a group:
The Brown's stood by the fence.
The Jenkins' stood by the fence.
The Vincente's stood by the fence.
Here is how I am doing posessives:
The Brown's car.
The Vincente's car.
The Jenkins' car.
Now ..... is any of this right???
Like dpaterso said, No, none of it is right.
The Brown family and the Vincente family are quite straightforward.
Don't use an apostrophe to make a plural:
- The Browns stood by the fence.
- The Vincentes stood by the fence.
The possessive of a plural adds an apostrophe after the S:
- The Browns' car.
- The Vincentes' car.
The possessive of the singular adds an apostrophe and an S:
- David Brown's car.
- Sarah Vincente's car.
The Jenkins family is a little different. When a proper name (just like any noun)
ends with [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
s, sh, ch, x, or z:[/FONT]
Plurals: Use es to form the plural
- The Jenkinses stood by the fence.
Possessives: There are several schools of thought. Pick one and be consistent. Even if an editor disagrees with your choice, s/he will recognize it as one of the standard variations. (In other words, you won't look stupid.)
Plural Possessives:
- The Jenkins' car.
- The Jenkinses' car.
Singular Possessives:
- Carl Jenkins' car.
- Carl Jenkins's car.
- Bob Jones's truck, but Carl Jenkins' car. (some say it depends on the number of syllables--one vs more than one; others say it depends on how it's pronounced)
- Moses' beard, but James's hair (some say Moses, Jesus and a few other "ancient" names enjoy a special status; others say it's because the last syllable begins with s)
