Often spelling and capitalization rules for holidays don’t get taught, and both teachers and students simply use what they’ve seen the most—not necessarily the correct form! Is it New Year, New Year’s, or New Years? When do we capitalize New Year and when do we use lowercase letters?
If you have classes today, it will be useful for your students to learn the correct spelling of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. If you and your students don’t go back to school until next week, this would still be an educational way to begin or wrap up talking about the holidays!
New Years: Never use this!
Let’s start with the easiest one. It is never, ever New Years! This is undoubtedly a mistake that developed when people heard New Year’s spoken, and began incorrectly writing it as New Years. Your students might see New Years on the Internet, so please teach them that it is, in fact, incorrect.
New Year’s: Use when referring to the holiday.
We capitalize New Year’s when referring to the holiday. It is short for New Year’s Day or New Year’s Eve.
- New Year’s Eve (often NYE)
- New Year’s Day
- On New Year’s Eve, I usually go out with my friends.
- Are you going to Susan’s New Year’s party?
- We are going to discuss our New Year’s resolutions in class today.
New Year: Use when referring to the holiday.
In the popular greeting/expression Happy New Year, we capitalize it, but do not usually use the ’s form. Happy New Year is much more common than Happy New Year’s, though the ’s form is possible. Note that we often follow this expression with an exclamation point.
Don’t forget that happy is only capitalized at the beginning of a sentence. We can also substitute other adjectives such as prosperous, successful, healthy, etc.
- Happy New Year!
- He wished her a happy New Year before he left.
- I want to wish everyone a prosperous New Year.
new year: Use when not referring to the holiday.
We often discuss our plans for the coming year in late December and early January, and it is commonly referred to as the “new” year. In English, it is also common to refer to the new year by date.
Handy trick: Teach your students that if an article (a, the) precedes the phrase, we usually don’t capitalize it.
- What are your goals for the new year?
- Since this is a new year, I’m going to start my diet all over again.
- I’m planning on quitting smoking in the new year.
- What are your resolutions for 2014?
Note: New Year activities or New Year’s activities?
A fellow grammar enthusiast pointed out that New Year’s lesson might be misinterpreted as a possessive meaning instead of the holiday name. You wouldn’t say Christmas’s lesson, after all. Hopefully people will realize that the holiday includes the possessive form, and that’s why it is natural to use it. Compare New Year’s Day and Christmas Day, which leads to New Year’s activities and Christmas activities.
Note that, for some, New Year is also acceptable (some people choose to say New Year activities), so you can teach and use whichever you prefer. Personally, I prefer using New Year’s when referring to the holiday. I’d say New Year’s activities, New Year’s lesson, New Year’s party, etc., and I believe it is the more common choice.
And on that note, happy New Year to you all!
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