Kids Menu or Kid's Menu? Which is right

Came across a grey area at work today. Wasn't sure if I should write Kids Menu or Kid's Menu. Now the Kids don't necessarily own the menu, and there's a small case for leaving out the ' for encoding reasons, but I'd rather be right. It's a menu for the kids, rather than for, of or by the kids.

Any thoughts?

Tags: apostrophe, grammar, grey area, trophy

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Permalink Reply by OneSide on June 4, 2009 at 9:54pm: I'm not particularly sure of this myself, but my initial thought is that it should be "Kids". Since you're just using Kids as a sort of adjective for the menu. There's actually a third option here, Kids', which would just be the plural possessive of Kid's. It seems like "Kids" makes the most sense if you're just using it in an adjective type form.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TheGratefulNed on June 5, 2009 at 5:18am: While they're not possessive of the menu, it is intended for their use while at your business. As such, I would say either Kid's or Kids', but not Kids. If you think of replacing the word "Kid" with "Child" you would call it a "Child's Menu" or "Children's Menu" right? Not a "Children Menu." (Unless children are on the menu...what kind of place do you work at?)

Now if this is a menu for ordering kids, then I would say "Kids Menu"...kind of like a "Wine List." ;); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Garrett W. on June 5, 2009 at 7:08am: I agree completely.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by OneSide on June 5, 2009 at 7:26am: See, I didn't even think of it this way, nicely put Ned. (:; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Geoffrey Bernardo van Wyk on June 5, 2009 at 11:13am: 100% on the money.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shtanto on June 11, 2009 at 1:23pm: Thanks Ned! I'll have to ask the web team if the parser can handle apostrophes (catastrophes as they call them). The Internet is bad enough without people trying to buy children!

How about Kids Meals? Kid's meals? I remember my English teacher telling us not to put anything in if we're not sure, possibly because they're a lot harder to remove.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Garrett W. on June 11, 2009 at 6:25pm: > "I'll have to ask the web team if the parser can handle apostrophes"
what kind of decent system can't handle a freakin apostrophe?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TheGratefulNed on June 12, 2009 at 6:05am: One that uses apostrophes to enclose certain syntactic forms can sometimes require an escape character (or occasionally be unable to handle it at all) if one or more are to be included in the content of a variable.

While I don't know of any offhand that don't have a simple way to escape the character or otherwise insert it, it's not inconceivable.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sol McNally Aka : Dmitri Girl on June 11, 2009 at 1:40pm: So I used google as a resource. And according to Applebee's it is Kid's Menu. According to Denny's it is Kids Menu? I would guess that Applebee's is more likely correct. :) Walt Disney World claims it like this Kids'.

I found a site that sort of explains the different uses so I am going to put the most important part of what your discussing in here and then a link to the site showing I used it as a resource.

Reference below : http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/621/01/

The Apostrophe

The apostrophe has three uses:

1. to form possessives of nouns
2. to show the omission of letters
3. to indicate certain plurals of lowercase letters

Forming Possessives of Nouns

To see if you need to make a possessive, turn the phrase around and make it an "of the..." phrase. For example:

the boy's hat = the hat of the boy
three days' journey = journey of three days

If the noun after "of" is a building, an object, or a piece of furniture, then no apostrophe is needed!

room of the hotel = hotel room
door of the car = car door
leg of the table = table leg

Once you've determined whether you need to make a possessive, follow these rules to create one.

* add 's to the singular form of the word (even if it ends in -s):

the owner's car
James's hat (James' hat is also acceptable. For plural, proper nouns that are possessive, use an apostrophe after the 's': "The Eggles' presentation was good." The Eggles are a husband and wife consultant team.)

* add 's to the plural forms that do not end in -s:

the children's game
the geese's honking

* add ' to the end of plural nouns that end in -s:

houses' roofs
three friends' letters

* add 's to the end of compound words:

my brother-in-law's money

* add 's to the last noun to show joint possession of an object:

Todd and Anne's apartment; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Darren on June 11, 2009 at 7:09pm: It's:

Kids' menu.

As it belongs to more than one.

At least that's what I'd do.; ▶ Reply to This