Glad You Asked: How do I sign holiday cards?

 

When you're writing your holiday cards this season, how are you supposed to sign your family's name? With an apostrophe? Or without?

Glad You Asked.

"Apostrophe is only used for 2 things and that is to show possession and for contractions." said Wauwatosa East HS English teacher Jean Beidel. "And you're not doing either when you're signing your name."

We'll use CBS 58 Morning News anchor Mike Curkov's name as an example.

If his family has a nice little sign outside their house, and they're trying to show that it's their house, it could say "the Curkovs' " because it's their house.

But if he is signing his family name to a card, it is just "the Curkovs," no apostrophe. (Just an 's' probably also makes the most sense for the sign outside your house).

When signing your family name, you'd use an 'es' if your name ends in s, x, z, ch or sh.

However, you can understand the people that think " Curkov's " just looks better, the proper way looks like an extra letter at the end of your name. 

Even iPhone auto-correct tries to change it to " 's. "

"Auto-corrects are not always right. And that's why we have to abdicate our minds for auto-correct." said Beidel. "Language is a tricky thing. It says something about who we are and don't let it spoil your holidays."

Of course, as with most grammar questions, saying "from, the Curkov Family" is an easy way around it.