You also say “New Year” with no possessive apostrophe-S when you’re talking about the year as a whole. Here’s what to say at midnight (and for the first couple weeks of January): Happy New Year! And now you can do it too!)Īlso, note that “New Year’s” is capitalized because it’s referring to a holiday or a specific event. “My New Year’s resolution is to remember where the apostrophe goes in New Year’s.” (The resolution belongs to the New Year.

In all three cases, there’s a relationship of belonging between the New Year and the noun: the eve, the day, and the resolution are all specifically related to the New Year (it’s not just any resolution), so “New Year’s” becomes the modifier for each noun. Here are the three most common uses of New Year: Apostrophes are the way the English language shows possession or that something belongs to another thing.