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Monday, June 3, 2019

Is the spelling Fathers Day, Father’s Day, or Fathers’ Day.


There are three variations that can be used for Father’s Day and all to a degree make sense, but only one is correct.

Modern usage of the apostrophe means that when there is a tenuous link between ownership, the apostrophe is no longer used. E.g. visitors book, which has no apostrophe as no particular visitor owns the book.. Since Father’s Day is not owned by anyone, it could be Fathers Day with no apostrophe. There are many fathers so it makes sense to use the plural version and place the apostrophe after the s, as in Fathers’ Day. However, Father’s Day is an officially declared day with the apostrophe before the s, which follows the convention used for Mother’s Day.

Trying to work out logically where the apostrophe should appear in the case of Father’s Day doesn’t work. The placement of the apostrophe is a result of how the day was officially declared.

Some of you may have noticed recently shops using the apostrophe incorrectly in their Father’s Day promotions, if you didn’t, you probably will next year.

Kelvin Eldridge
The preferred Australian English spelling.

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