Is it Thank Yous or Thank You’s? (Correct Grammar + Examples)

Is it thank yous or thank you’s? Using the apostrophe in the English language typically provides pluralization to the word that it is modifying. Adding an apostrophe can suggest that there is possession. And many amounts of certain things. For example, “Sonia’s book is missing.” In this sentence, the possession of the book is to Sonia, the person. This is how an apostrophe can modify singular nouns. An apostrophe can also modify compound nouns and create joint or separate possession.

Learn which word form is correct in this short guide…

Why is there confusion between thank yous and thank you’s?

Apostrophes are punctuation marks used to show possession. These two word forms are often confused because it is challenging to understand who has the possession of the “thank you.”

How to use the apostrophe correctly

The possessive singular noun is made by adding an apostrophe and the letter “s” to the singular noun in question, regardless of whether the singular noun ends in an “s” letter.

When a plural noun has an “s” at the end, the possessive form of the noun is created by simply adding an apostrophe. When the noun ends in any other letter, the possessive form is made by adding both an apostrophe and an “s.”

Thank you definition

Let’s take a look at the definition of “thank you.”

Which is correct? Thank yous or thank you’s or thank-you’s?

Here is a simple breakdown of which word form is correct. For examples of each word form in an English sentence, scroll down to the next section.

Key differences

In the word forms above, the key difference is that the phrase “thank yous” is not using an apostrophe to show possession or to refer to quantities. The form “thank you’s” is correct.

Thank you’s sentence examples

Below are sentence examples using the word form correctly:

• I want to write many thank-you’s to the people who showed up.
• I want to be able to share all of my thank you’s with the team.

How to remember which word form to use

Remember that when we want to pluralize and show possession, we use an apostrophe before the “s” letter in the word or phrase. Thank you’s or thank-you’s is the correct grammatical form.

Here is a simple trick to remember apostrophe rules:

Use apostrophe + “s” with nouns that don’t end in “s”. When a singular noun has possession over another noun (such as Sarah’s hat or mom’s cat), add an apostrophe + “s” to the end of the noun. The same rules apply for collective nouns and plural nouns that don’t end in the “s” letter.

Common questions

Questions and answers about the English language.

Is it thank-you or thank you?

Hyphenated words that are joined together are called compound words. The word “thank-you” takes a hyphen when it’s modifying a noun. Use thank-you’s when modifying a noun.