Apostrophes

[TheTrueMop]

In the past few years, it has come to my attention that the number of people who actually use the English language correctly (or intentionally try to against any sort of dyslexia) has dropped dramatically. Do people not know what the rules are, or do they not care? The main culprit is apostrophes, those little marks that make all the difference. Not to be confused with inverted commas when providing an example that is not directly quoted or denoting sarcasm. Regardless of pig ignorance, here's a short list of rules that will see you all right:


Ok, this is a big one for me, as even professional companies get this wrong at times.
Apostrophes are only ever used in two situations in English, namely to denote possession, or to take the place of an absent letter in a contraction (two words pushed together to make one) or colloquially shortened word. For possessive purposes, the apostrophe goes before the 's' that will denote the noun has become possessive in form. The only exception to this rule is when the noun ends in an 's'. I this case, the apostrophe simply moves to the end of the word, and an additional 's' is NOT added. This is the same if the word is plural and would not usually end in an 's'.
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Examples: Don't Can't Shan't Leavin' Carol's Andy's Chris' series'
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Note: Contrary to popular belief, it is not correct to place apostrophes before an 's' to denote plurality in ANY situation, not even with acronyms. Acronyms work in the same way as any other noun (or other word class).
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Examples: DVDs CDs CEOs
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Your turn, can you work out which of these word forms are possessive, plural, and plural possessive?

Girls
Girls'
Girl's


God I love English.

[Eggbert]

Originally Posted by TheTrueMop

Do people not know what the rules are, or do they not care?

gee I wonder

hey look I didn't capitalize that or use a period and I'm not using a comma now I must have failed elementary school grammar

[Spudfish93]

Girls - Plural
Girls' - Plural Possessive
Girl's - Possessive
Do I get a sticker?

Originally Posted by !~Magnus~!

gee I wonder

hey look I didn't capitalize that or use a period and I'm not using a comma now I must have failed elementary school grammar

Oh, you rebel!

[Bartimaeus]

What I've never understood is why there isn't something for plural abbreviations or single letters. For example: there are four As in the previous sentence. That just looks plain wrong. A's looks much better.

Also, as Magnus said: nobody cares.

[Snagprophet]

I'm pretty sure if someone's name ends with an 'S' then it still gets apostrophe and S after the name because I said what you said, Mop, and was corrected. Also, JK Rowling has used both variations. But I think grammar is important in all typing and writing forms. Even smart phones have QWERTY keyboards yet text speak is still used as if the perpetrators have to tap the same key repeatedly to laboriously achieve the desired letter.

tl;dr: Wish people could speak our English language.

[Bluish]

Aye, the apostrophe rape on the Internets has always driven me insane. But eh, that's just the way it goes I guess...

Years ago when I used to watch 'em, I remember a wise Strong Bad once saying: "If it is possessive, it's just 'I-T-S,' but if it's a contraction, it's 'I-T-APOSTROPHE-S'... scallawag!"

[TheTrueMop]

Originally Posted by BluishBreegull

Aye, the apostrophe rape on the Internets has always driven me insane. But eh, that's just the way it goes I guess...

Years ago when I used to watch 'em, I remember a wise Strong Bad once saying: "If it is possessive, it's just 'I-T-S,' but if it's a contraction, it's 'I-T-APOSTROPHE-S'... scallawag!"

That's a good point, I forgot to mention that pronouns don't have apostrophes when denoting possession...

[Spudfish93]

I'm not as bad as my father is when hating on the apostrophe idiots, when we went on holiday there was a chalkboard sign that said various things such as:
Carrot's - 20p
Aubergine's
Pepper's
Egg's

My father rubbed all of the apostrophes out every time we went past.

[Smouvy]

I place my apostrophes without thinking or applying rules consciously. I rarely get it wrong.

[firealpha]

Originally Posted by Bartimaeus

What I've never understood is why there isn't something for plural abbreviations or single letters. For example: there are four As in the previous sentence. That just looks plain wrong. A's looks much better.

I've always learned that A's would be the correct form. When pluralizing letters, I use apostrophes. However with numbers, you wouldn't. 1980s, for example.

[Guitar]

lol english is a retarded language screw proper punctuation im batman

In all honesty, though, As,DVDs, and VHSs look very odd.

[Mandolin]

I love the English language and think I use it pretty good.

If I use an apostrophe to denote plurality, it's only to make the meaning clearer on the Interwebz, not because I think it's gramatically correct.

[DarkJinjo]

I can't believe this is actually a thread. This is something that I thought everyone learns in grade school.

[TheTrueMop]

Originally Posted by DarkJinjo

I can't believe this is actually a thread. This is something that I thought everyone learns in grade school.

And yet people fail to use it later in life. Does that not say something?

[Smouvy]

That is true, the amount of natives I see doing this wrong is worrying.