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The Use of the Apostrophe in the English Language
- stcredzero 17y agoIn the decade since, Slashdot has provided a bottomless well of bad writing, couldn't-care-less editing, and profound ignorance of virtually every aspect of the real world. It has set the standard for moronic prose, and deserves being remembered as we try to meet and exceed the abysmal benchmark it has made Ironically, it is considered a bastion of knowledge by many today. Most of that is due to the depths to which the net has sunk in general. That said, it is a source of real knowledge and insight. When something egregious enough is posted, a real expert is often driven to post an informative reply from their personal experience.
- vorg 17y agoNo problem with rules 1 (its, it's) and 4 (pronouns never use apostrophe). Re rule 2, most contractions can be confused with other words, and look very wrong, if the apostrophe is omitted, but a few (e.g. youre, mustnt) still look OK. Re rule 3, some plural possessive nouns look OK without the apostrophe (e.g. "horses hooves" for "horses' hooves"). I'd never skip the apostrophe for a singular noun though (e.g. horse's hooves). Re rule 5 (Plurals never use apostrophe), when the word is an acronym or capitalized, I'd put an apostrophe in (e.g. the four B52's, I've received 7 RSVP's so far).
- chanux 17y agoThe oatmeal has it with nice graphics. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe But is it just me or the possession example doesn't match with the recap?
- josefresco 17y agoThe most confusing infographic ever (doesn't help that the topic isn't easy either)
- shrikant 17y agoBob the Angry Flower holds forth as well - http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif
- hackermom 17y agoI personally never had problems with the rules. They are quite clear to me, apart from that one common pitfall: its vs. it's, which is probably the most common pitfall people never memorize. I still don't want to put blame on the English language, but rather on lack of attention from the student - there is just no excuse for ignorance.
- RyanMcGreal 17y agoThe way I found to keep its and it's straight is to remember that its is one of the possessive pronouns, none of which take an apostrophe: my, your, his, her, its, their.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- stcredzero 17y agoFor a lot of folks, that rule breaks down with you're.
- eru 17y agoSounds perfectly in line to me. Am I missing something?
- loup-vaillant 17y ago"you're" ("it's") is the contraction of "you are" ("it is"). "your" ("its") is the possessive. The contraction <=> apostrophe rule doesn't break for me in this case. How could it break for anyone?
- stcredzero 17y agoYes, but they go ahead and use the wrong homonym anyways. That's what I meant -- a criticism of too many erroneous posters. (But for some reason everyone took it as a criticism of the rule and voted me down.)
- 17y ago
- RyanMcGreal 17y agoStill my favourite commentary on the abused apostrophe: http://www.reddit.com/comments/65hz7/ http://www.reddit.com/comments/65hz7/
- elblanco 17y agoLame, didn't even cover the clusterf*k that is the apostrophe and year ranges. 1990s vs. 1990's vs 90s vs 90's vs '90s vs '90's or the could've, could have, could of corrupted homophone disaster. Like most things in English, apostrophes kind of have a standard, basic, rule concept (used before an s when making a possessive), then the rest is common exceptions (contractions, plural form possessives) and options (decade ranges) which are only options to certain people and necessary to others, except for the very specific exceptions (plural single letters, quoted plurals, quoted possessives, possessive and plural, words naturally ending in s, glottal stops, un-lettered syllable accents, clicks, silent but looks cool), which nobody remembers correctly except those being pedantic and never seem to really muss up anybody's understanding of the meaning. Anybody who thinks they know all the apostrophe rules most likely doesn't. Even http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe which captures some of the complexity mises a bunch of these cases and inserts one I've never seen -- the quoted single letter plural. The only rule you have to remember is this, "what are the grammar rules that your readers will be assuming are the rules, follow those for comprehension."
- stcredzero 17y agoTo paraphrase Spaceballs: Bad grammar will always win because readers are dumb!
- byoung2 17y agoThere is a lot of confusion about the possessive form of singular proper nouns that end in "s". I've seen it both ways and have never found a consistent pattern in American English. Historical figures usually just get an apostrophe, and normal people get an apostrophe and an "s". Example: "Jesus' desciples" vs "Chris's bicycle". There are exceptions to even this rule, however, such as "Zeus's infidelity". For regular nouns, it seems more consistent ("for goodness' sake" but never "for goodness's sake"). Does anyone know a concrete rule for this?
- nethergoat 17y agoIt's a stylistic choice, so opinions vary, but the simplest guide I've found is to simply check the intended pronunciation. If you would pronounce the 's as its own syllable, include it (e.g., "Chris's"); it not, don't (e.g., "Mephistopheles'").
- moomba 17y agoLooks like a typo in Rule 3. Should say, "Possessive nouns never use an apostrophe." This point is alluded to in the body of the rule.