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I am designing an RSVP, in which I give my guests the option of choosing their meal preference. I have a column for ticking the option of a kid's meal, then at the bottom I have a key for all of the meals.

My question is: If my key is talking about meals in general should it be written "kids' meal"? Then should the tick box be labelled "kid's meal", as it is one person indicating the meal for their one child?

If this is correct, is it strange to have it written differently on the same invitation? Is there a way I can write both of them the same way that would be correct?

I don't want to get this wrong as I am a teacher and I am inviting a whole load of teachers to my wedding! :)

Many thanks

(Hope I've explained this correctly - I've attached a picture for reference) enter image description here

Mari-Lou A
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lauhug
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  • You could leave it as: kids meal as in men shoes. The first noun acts "like" an adjective, it's called an adjunct noun. Otherwise, if the noun is regular and plural the apostrophe comes after the -s. For example: The kids' teacher is getting married. But The men's shoes were laid outside – Mari-Lou A Feb 16 '15 at 00:23
  • Related a noun adjunct the possessive case and Where should the apostrophe be placed in “Goats Milk”? – Mari-Lou A Feb 16 '15 at 00:28
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    @Mari-Lou A The modern style is 'mens shoes'. The taboo apostropheless mens has been around for many years now in working mens clubs. As shown here. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 16 '15 at 00:47
  • @EdwinAshworth yes, you're right (as nearly always :)) although my last sentence is grammatical. Perhaps not the best example I could have given. – Mari-Lou A Feb 16 '15 at 00:51
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    Although my wife says my sense of style is ... er ... absent. Nice to see the kids getting a square meal. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 16 '15 at 00:52
  • @Mari-LouA @EdwinAshworth - 1) A case of forcing square bread into round holes? 2) We also have the parallel forms men's wear and menswear. – Erik Kowal Feb 16 '15 at 03:12
  • Signs on restrooms: Mens.....Womens. (at least it didn't say "menses"!) – Brian Hitchcock Feb 16 '15 at 10:14
  • @ErikKowal well, I did admit that the example I chose was not the "happiest". So let's change that to: student lockers, students locker and students' lockers, all three are acceptable, although they have slightly different meanings. – Mari-Lou A Feb 16 '15 at 10:30
  • Thanks for your suggestions. There was a reply in "Where should the apostrophe be placed in “Goats Milk”?" which made me think about swapping kid's/kids' to child's/children's. I think I'll do that as it's more obvious that I'm making the distinction between singular and plural, rather than a typo!

    ...and don't worry - I'm not feeding the children a square! It's just design work in progress :)

     – lauhug Feb 16 '15 at 10:50

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I think you should leave it as you have it. You have defensible reasons. If anyone claims it's a typo you can put them in their place with the same reasoning you have given here. And good for you for thinking about it.

Brian Hitchcock
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