Possessives

“Driver License” vs. “Driver’s License” vs. “Drivers’ License”

Adjectives, Plurals, Possessives, Versus

I have wondered for years about which of these is the correct form.

Problem:
The fifty state governments in the USA are inconsistent in the way that they refer to licenses issued to drivers.

Explanation:
I searched the Web for the form used by each of the fifty state governments.

Some state government had two official ways to refer to these licenses. Most state governments had only one way. No state government used “Drivers License” (plural, with no possessive apostrophe).

Here are the names of the states whose governments use one or more of the three forms on their own websites:

  • “Driver License” (35 states):  Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana (also in “Driver’s License” list), Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania (also in “Driver’s License” list), South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin
  • “Driver’s License” (16 states):  Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana (also in “Driver License” list), Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania (also in “Driver License” list), Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming
  • “Drivers’ License” (1 state):  Delaware

Ignoring the two “undecided” states (Indiana and Pennsylvania), we see that “Driver License” is favored by a ratio of more than 2.35 to 1 over “Driver’s License” (thirty-three states vs. fourteen states).

Solution:
I doubt that the fifty state governments ever will agree on a single form for referring to licenses that they issue to drivers. The best for which we can hope is that any given state government with multiple ways will settle on a single form and that Delaware will come to its senses about “Drivers’ License”.

“The Nelson’s”

Apostrophes, Common English Blunders, Plurals, Possessives

I saw this on a luggage tag at O’Hare airport.

Problem:
An apostrophe appears where it should not.

Explanation:
An apostrophe should not be used to pluralize a family name. The brightly colored luggage tag was meant to call the reader’s attention to the fact that the luggage belonged to the Nelson family.

Use of the definite article on the luggage tag told me that the family name was Nelson.

The plural of Nelson is Nelsons (not Nelson’s). For example, The Nelsons live in suburban Chicago.

If the luggage-tag writer had wanted to indicate that the luggage belonged to the Nelsons, then he could have written The Nelsons’. Note the possessive apostrophe after the pluralized family name.

Solution:
“The Nelsons”

“WordPress Red Womens T-Shirt”

Adjectives, Apostrophes, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Nouns, Possessives

I saw this at shop.wordpress.net/usa/t-shirts.

Problems:
1. An apostrophe is missing.
2. The modifiers of “T-Shirt” are in a confusing order.

Explanations:
1. The first problem is that the plural noun “Women” requires a possessive apostrophe followed by an “s” to indicate the possession of the “T-Shirt” by the women.

I believe that the absence of a required possessive apostrophe can be attributable to:

  • A typographical error;
  • Ignorance about possessive apostrophes.

Given how often I see “Mens” and “Womens” (instead of “Men’s” and “Women’s”) in department stores, I doubt that “A typographical error” applies to this situation.

That leaves us with “Ignorance about possessive apostrophes”. I believe that this ignorance is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. It’s simpler to write possessive words without apostrophes than to write them with apostrophes.

I blogged about possessive apostrophes yesterday (“NEW YEARS EVE WITH CARSON DALY”), too. Maybe something is in the water for the holidays.

2. The second problem is that the modifiers of “T-Shirt” are in a confusing order. I doubt that the writer meant to refer to “Red Women”, but one could easily infer this from the current order of the modifiers. This is analogous to “Green Lady’s Handbag” (when what is meant is “Lady’s Green Handbag”).

The solution to this confusion is to start from scratch. We have a T-shirt. Most important, it comes from WordPress, so it’s a WordPress T-shirt (with the noun “WordPress” acting as an adjective to modify the noun “T-shirt”). It comes in red, so it’s a red WordPress T-shirt (with the adjective “red” modifying the noun phrase “WordPress T-shirt”). It’s for women, so we put the possessive “women’s” in front of red WordPress T-shirt to get the solution.

Solution:
“Women’s Red WordPress T-Shirt”