The Apostrophe

Chip \'oyler

Now there is no excuse EVER

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe

STEFANOS4784

I dont' need excuse's...

blackpanther

This is one of the single most confusing things for me, I'm going to print it out.

Cheer's fella'

dennisn

I think that I will always be a complete failure at punctuation and I may never understand sentence structure, as is proven daily on this forum. Thanks for the help though.

simonaspinall

Did one of your accounts pull you up on your punctuation?

Ben6899

Nothing annoy's me more than misused apostrophe's and other examples of overzealous punctuation!!!!

schweiz

In my last year of primary school (1989!), we were all banned from using apostrophes. Every month our teacher would make us do a test by giving us a paragraph with no apostrophes in it and we had to fill in where we thought they should go. If you got them all right, you got the coveted 'Apostrophe Licence' and you were then allowed to use them! I never got one

It confused the hell out of my first secondary school English teacher when I asked if I could use apostrophes even though I had no licence.

Chip \'oyler

schweiz wrote:

In my last year of primary school (1989!), we were all banned from using apostrophes. Every month our teacher would make us do a test by giving us a paragraph with no apostrophes in it and we had to fill in where we thought they should go. If you got them all right, you got the coveted 'Apostrophe Licence' and you were then allowed to use them! I never got one

It confused the hell out of my first secondary school English teacher when I asked if I could use apostrophes even though I had no licence.

Schweiz - Where you live is perfect for a pedantic typographer

STEFANOS4784

To be fair, i understand apostrophies, my teacher was excellent at explaining it simply

disquieting_museeuws

To my enduring shame & frustration I put Bishop's Bible instead of Bishops' Bible in my MA thesis. I knew it was a mistake, I just missed it. It's like a running sore in my soul that can never be healed.

Stewie Griffin

Ben6899 wrote:

Nothing annoy's me more than misused apostrophe's and other example's of overzealou's punctuation's!!!!

:roll: Fixed that for you

Crapaud

Stewie Griffin wrote:

Ben6899 wrote:

Nothing annoy's me more than misused apostrophe's and other example's of overzealou's punctuation's!!!!

:roll: Fixed that for you

Simple's!

Le Commentateur

I hate seeing straight ones ('), which are better used as mathematical symbols, rather than the typographically proper curved ones (’). Unfortunately it’s a situation that is reinforced by limitations of software and the internet. It’s even possible to identify memorial inscriptions that have been designed on computer and then machine made, rather than cut by hand, because of such typographic errors of style.

Le Commentateur

Arghhh!

Anonymous

Le Commentateur wrote:

I hate seeing straight ones ('), which are better used as mathematical symbols, rather than the typographically proper curved ones (’). Unfortunately it’s a situation that is reinforced by limitations of software and the internet. It’s even possible to identify memorial inscriptions that have been designed on computer and then machine made, rather than cut by hand, because of such typographic errors of style.

+1 bang on mate. :shock:

mkirby

Le Commentateur wrote:

Arghhh!

Arrggggghhhhhhhh for muppets who think this is wrong. It is a name ending in S and it is possessive therefore apostrophe at the end. It is not the park named St James its the park belonging to St James.

The caption is wrong as "clubs" should not have an apostrophe.

We may talk funny up here but we do know how to do correct english. Not like that lot south of the river.

balthazar

mkirby wrote:

Le Commentateur wrote:

Arghhh!

Arrggggghhhhhhhh for muppets who think this is wrong. It is a name ending in S and it is possessive therefore apostrophe at the end. It is not the park named St James its the park belonging to St James.

The caption is wrong as "clubs" should not have an apostrophe.

We may talk funny up here but we do know how to do correct english. Not like that lot south of the river.

The raised objection was not to the placement of the apostrophe, but to the use of the wrong glyph: a single straight quotation mark, instead of a proper apostrophe – which is asymmetrical, with it's tail pointing to the left. Once you start noticing this sort of thing it gets excruciating, because nearly nobody does it right. En– and em—dashes are another fun type-nerd trap.

Homer J

I am not a fan of apostrophes, I prefer commas

thejesusandsedischain

sorry i thought this thread was about them blokes in the bible.

Brassknocker

balthazar wrote:

mkirby wrote:

Le Commentateur wrote:

Arghhh!

Arrggggghhhhhhhh for muppets who think this is wrong. It is a name ending in S and it is possessive therefore apostrophe at the end. It is not the park named St James its the park belonging to St James.

The caption is wrong as "clubs" should not have an apostrophe.
We may talk funny up here but we do know how to do correct english. Not like that lot south of the river.

The raised objection was not to the placement of the apostrophe, but to the use of the wrong glyph: a single straight quotation mark, instead of a proper apostrophe – which is asymmetrical, with it's tail pointing to the left. Once you start noticing this sort of thing it gets excruciating, because nearly nobody does it right. En– and em—dashes are another fun type-nerd trap.

mkirby, you're wrong, club's is correct in this case.

balthazar, its not it's


...end of pedantry message.

balthazar

Brassknocker wrote:

mkirby, you're wrong, club's is correct in this case.

balthazar, its not it's


...end of pedantry message.

Mea culpa. I reckon I was done by my iPhone's autocorrect though..!

disquieting_museeuws

A few years ago a leisure centre cafe near me re-branded itself & put up a sign saying Living'stones (as in the explorer I presume).

After much discussion of this choice of punctuation my sister came up with the theory that someone had drummed into whoever made the sign up to put the apostrophe before the S, unfortunately they hadn't specified which one!

Pross

The possessive of a word ending in s sometimes confuses me. In the St. James' Park for example - I have heard so-called experts on the radio say it can be either James' or James's. I would use the s' though.

In school I used to get confused with it's / its. The reason being that a comma is used to show possession so if something belonged to "it" that rule would suggest that it's would be correct i.e "It is in it's hand". I still don't know why it is incorrect when "it is in John's hand" would be correct - I just know it is. The English language is a great thing

mr_hippo

Pross wrote:

The possessive of a word ending in s sometimes confuses me. In the St. James' Park for example - I have heard so-called experts on the radio say it can be either James' or James's. I would use the s' though.

For a word ending in "s", both apostrophe after the "s" and "s's" are correct. There is sometimes confusion where no apostrophe is used; this is because the place is named after someone and not owned by them. Possibly the apostrophe in St James' Park (Newcastle) refers to its close proximity to St James Street and St James Terrace and was on land in St James Street therefore it warrants the apostrophe.

Pross wrote:

In school I used to get confused with it's / its. The reason being that a comma is used to show possession so if something belonged to "it" that rule would suggest that it's would be correct i.e "It is in it's hand". I still don't know why it is incorrect when "it is in John's hand" would be correct - I just know it is. The English language is a great thing

Belonging to "it" is "it's" - without the apostrophe. "It's" with the apostrophe is a contraction of "it is". Using your sentence "It is in it's hand" and removing the contraction, we get "It is in it is hand" and that does not make sense, does it?

mmitchell88

Sorry. Wrong thread.

Pross

Belonging to "it" is "it's" - without the apostrophe. "It's" with the apostrophe is a contraction of "it is". Using your sentence "It is in it's hand" and removing the contraction, we get "It is in it is hand" and that does not make sense, does it?

I know that there's no apostrophe (now) but I don't see why it would be any different to John "it is in John is hand" by the same example. It's just one of those little nuances that complicate, the apostrophe gets used to shorten or to show possession except in the case of "it" being in possession

fungus_the_muffin_man

Homer J wrote:

I am not a fan of apostrophes, I prefer commas

I prefer my women to be in a comma to

Crapaud

Fungus The Muffin Man wrote:

Homer J wrote:

I am not a fan of apostrophes, I prefer commas

I prefer my women to be in a comma to

inb4iprefercolons

Coriander

Pross wrote:

Belonging to "it" is "it's" - without the apostrophe. "It's" with the apostrophe is a contraction of "it is". Using your sentence "It is in it's hand" and removing the contraction, we get "It is in it is hand" and that does not make sense, does it?

I know that there's no apostrophe (now) but I don't see why it would be any different to John "it is in John is hand" by the same example. It's just one of those little nuances that complicate, the apostrophe gets used to shorten or to show possession except in the case of "it" being in possession

The easy way to decide if you need an apostrophe or not is to remember that 'its' is in the same group of words (possessive adjective) as 'his' and 'her' and as they don't take apostrophes neither does its when used to show possession.

jrduquemin

disquieting_museeuws wrote:

To my enduring shame & frustration I put Bishop's Bible instead of Bishops' Bible in my MA thesis. I knew it was a mistake, I just missed it. It's like a running sore in my soul that can never be healed.

Maybe you should buy some more cycle related goodies to help numb the pain then

deal

disquieting_museeuws wrote:

To my enduring shame & frustration I put Bishop's Bible instead of Bishops' Bible in my MA thesis. I knew it was a mistake, I just missed it. It's like a running sore in my soul that can never be healed.

I had a spelling mistake in the title of my thesis :oops: