Learn English – What’s the plural of “Valentine’s”

apostrophegrammatical-number

If I want to form the plural of “Valentine’s” as a short form of “Saint Valentine’s Day” – where do I put the apostrophe(s)? Is it possible at all?

I believe that Valentines’, although the normal plural form of a genitive ending in “s”, would be wrong here since that would mean “the day of the people who are called Valentine”. So what’s right? Valentine’s’ ?

Here’s an example of where I’d use this form:

She had spent so many Valentine’s’ alone that she now loathed the very mention of this day.

– Of course I could simply write it out … but where’s the fun in that?

Best Answer

In my experience, “Valentine’s” is less common than “Valentine’s Day” — usually only the “St.” is dropped1 — so I think the usual phrasing would be:

She had spent so many Valentine’s Days alone that she now loathed the very mention of this day.

Another option, if you really want to use “Valentine’s” alone (without “Day”), is to treat it as a proper noun, and write:

She had spent Valentine’s alone so many times that she now loathed the very mention of this day.

(Compare “She had spent Christmas alone so many times […]”.)

  1. For example, compare the Google Books hits for "from Valentine's to" to those for "from Valentine's Day to".
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