correct puncuation for a word?

Question

I have a question if I am personalizing something and the name is Hodge but I want it to say The Hodge's, do I want Hodge's or Hodges???

Answer 1

Let's suppose that the father's name is Bob Hodge, the mother's name is Mary Hodge, the son's name is Tim Hodge and the daughter is Susan Hodge. Thus if they put a sign on their mailbox it would read, "The Hodges." This is the plural, thus indicating that there is more than one person with the name of Hodge living there. Note that there is no apostrophe as there is no possession indicated. It is simply the plural. If you are sending an invitation to an entire family with the same name, you may address it to simply "The Hodges" although it might be more personal to write "Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hodge and family."
Now let us assume that Mary Hodge buys a car. It is thus Mary Hodge's car. This is the singular form of the possessive. Now let us suppose that Mary and Bob buy a car together. In fact this is the family car. This is the Hodges' car. This is the plural possessive.
I hope this clears up the matter. Judging from the answers you have received already, you aren't the only one with this difficulty.

Answer 2

Use the possesive form, "Hodge's". Use "Hodges'" (yes, the apostrophe is after the 's') if you want to signify ownership or some other association between the subject and an indefinite number of individuals with the Hodge name. This implies that Allie M's last statement is incorrect; use "Hodges" to refer to more than one individual with the Hodge name as the subject or object of a statement.

Answer 3

If you want to say something that they own, then you would say, "the Hodge's house". If you just want to refer to them and not a possesion, use "the Hodges'."

Answer 4

It's Hodge's.

Answer 5

The conference will start on the evening of Sunday the 29th March and finish on the afternoon of Tuesday the 31st of March.