HOUSTON – If you’ve opened a holiday card and cringed, it probably has less to do with the questionable cuteness of your relative’s baby and more about the fully grown adult’s plural grammar in said card.
You’ve surely seen the apostrophes and the misplaced "s" or a combination of both.
Grammar can be hard. The holidays can be hard. Let us make both a little easier for you.
If your last name ends with an s, x, z, ch, sh, you add – es. Sanchez, for instance, becomes Sanchezes. If your last name ends with any other letter, you add an s. If your last name is Cochran, for example, the plural to deck out your cards would be Cochrans.
Slate.com put together a handy little video on the subject.
Check out the common mistakes if you'd like, but we’re not going back there. You don't have to either. Just study the rules above. You've got this.
The gift list, though – that’s another thing altogether. We’ll take that one on another time soon.