Sentence endings can make or break the illusion of great grammar in a piece of prose. Likewise, this applies to proper names
These endings have always troubled me until I finally decided to get it right. Compare the three sentences in each of these three examples and pick out the correct usages in this name ending with the letter s.
The Joneses came for dinner.
The Jones’s came for dinner.
The Jones came for dinner.
John Joneses car stalled.
John Jones car stalled.
John Jones’s car stalled.
That Jones’s girl.
That Joneses girl.
That Jones girl.
The corrected sentences…
The Joneses came for dinner.
John Jones’s car stalled.
That Jones girl.
Some Writing Tips
When a name ends with an s, and when speaking of the family as a group, add es, as in Joneses.
When speaking about something John Jones owned, it is his property and, therefore, an apostrophe and s shows ownership, as in Jones’s.
When speaking about a person in the singular, use only the name Jones.
However, when speaking about a group of girls all named Jones, you would write that sentence: The Jones girls. Notice that the name stays the same but the s is added to the word girl, stating more than one exists with that name.
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