New Year’s Eve is full of traditions that are easy to understand. However, most people get perplexed with a simple wish that is ' Happy New Year'. You don't have to be a grammar nazi to understand the difference between New Year, New Year's, and New Years.  And when do you need to capitalize the words “New Year”? The apostrophe game is very easy as far as you get the basic concept about the use of the punctuation mark. Also, note The “New Year” refers to December 31 i.e., New Year’s Eve, and January 1 i.e., New Year’s Day. Advance Happy New Year 2022 Greetings: Send WhatsApp Messages, Heartfelt SMS With HD Images And Quotes to Wish Your Friends and Family All the Best For Coming Year.

  1. New Year’s 

Apostrophes can be tricky. The apostrophe has two functions, it marks possession, and it is used in contractions (e'er for ever, isn't for is not, dep't for department) to indicate the place where the letters have been omitted. Use the apostrophe-S in “New Year’s” when you’re referring to December 31 or you are talking about some things that 'belong' to the new year.  For instance, it can be your resolutions you have planned for the new beginning.

Example: My New Year's resolution this year is to spend less time playing games on the computer.

“New Year’s” is a common short form of both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, two holidays that celebrate the beginning of a new year. In the names of these days, the apostrophe indicates possession in that they are referring to “The Eve of the New Year” and “The Day of the New Year.” All the three nouns the eve, the day, and the resolution are all specifically related to the New Year, so “New Year’s” becomes the modifier for each noun.

  1. New Year 

As soon as the clock strikes 12 on 31st December you don't have to think grammatically and you can simply say "Happy New Year!". The same rule can be continued for the first couple of weeks of January. When you are talking about the years as a whole then you don't use the apostrophe, it can be simply put up as "New Year".

  • Example 1: Wishing you and yours a Happy New Year.

  • Example 2: We will have to wait until the new year before we can make any definite plans.

Note, The difference here is between the holiday known as the New Year which is a Proper Noun and simply discussing the new year (Initials in lower case) in general which is used to explain the timeframe.

  1. New Years

Without the apostrophe, “New Years” is plural. The only time you will need to use “New Years,” is when you are referring to multiple New Year Holidays or instances.

Example : We’ve spent the last four New Years in Kasmir.

Since the whole concept was based on New Year, we would like to wish you a very happy and successful one! Bookmark the article and avoid silly mistakes while greeting your loved ones.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 27, 2021 05:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).