This week's blog is inspired by a help wanted ad in an IL newspaper. It read
Now Hiring
Students, Retiree's, Mother's, Others
Apparently students and others are plural, but retirees and mothers are possessive. As you know, all four singular nouns, should merely have an s added to make them plural. By adding 's, the words become singular possessive. Compare these two sentences.
The retirees enjoyed two weeks of travel last month.
The retiree's pension allowed her to travel.
The first is plural, talking about more than one retiree, and the second is talking about the pension that is the property of one retiree. Therefore, it is possessive rather than plural. Using the correct form of a word makes the meaning much clearer, and it makes the writer appear singularly intelligent.
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