Today is Veterans Day, a day of remembrance. We pause today to honor, acknowledge, and thank all the people in the armed forces of the United States – those presently serving our country, and those who have served in the past.
You will notice that we write Veterans with a plural s at the end instead of a possessive ‘s at the end.
An ‘s shows ownership, meaning that the person owns the next word.
Using just an s at the end of a word makes the word plural, meaning more than one.
We call this day Veterans Day, plural, because we want to include all the veterans when we remember and thank them.
The veterans don’t own the day, so we don’t use ‘s to show ownership.
We celebrate all the veterans on this day, so we use the plural form, adding only an s to write Veterans Day.
Isn’t it interesting how such a small piece of punctuation as the apostrophe can make such a big difference in meaning when we write?
If you happen to write anything today about Veterans Day, remember to use the plural form so that you recognize all the veterans, past and present, who have served us and our country.
To all the veterans out there – we thank you for your service!