@hisnibbs wrote:

Worst example I’ve seen:-
Hi’s and Her’s Towel’s.

On The Apprentice last week they couldn’t decoide whether it is
“national singles’ day”
or
“national singles day”

(I think we can forget “national single’s day”)

I believe it’s “national singles day” because it’s about singles more than for them/belonging to them.

Here’s the answer I got to a similar problem from an expert in the field:-

“It will take place at the end of year Partners meeting”
There is just one meeting being attended by lots of partners.

There are two ways of looking at it:
(1) (Probably what most people will say, here) takes the view that the meeting relates to the plural partners, so it’s the Partners’ Meeting.

(2) You ask “what kind of meeting is it?” and answer that by saying it’s a meeting of the type ” partners “. If you follow that pattern, no apostrophe is needed.

Who is going to the meeting? Just the partners? – if so, then (1) is probably appropriate. However, if it is a meeting where, say, those present decide who the partners should be (so the meeting is “about” the subject of partners) then I’d go with (2).

* * * * *

What about a sign at work, pointing to the Directors Office (a suite of offices housing the one Director, the one Deputy Director and plural Assistant Directors. Those who put up the sign thought about it, and decided that Director’s would miss out the others, and Directors’ would wrongly state their status. It’s supposedly an “adjectival” use, but it’s an uncomfortable one.

Directorate Office?

what a boring b@stard