The apostrophe, please read
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"its" is already possessive, no need to make it possessive, don't be ridiculousmrfpb said:Its as a possesive shurly should be it's
If the language itself is so inconsistent, why bother getting it right?
left the forum March 20230 -
I'm not sure you understand your own post.ugo.santalucia said:
"its" is already possessive, no need to make it possessive, don't be ridiculousmrfpb said:Its as a possesive shurly should be it's
If the language itself is so inconsistent, why bother getting it right?0 -
ugo.santalucia said:
There's a Portuguese novelist... what's his name... Saramago! He doesn't use punctuation
Not that I expect anyone on here to have read anything other than Harry Potter...
I had to look Saramago up, however as alternate, some of us know Molly Bloom’s Soliloquy – over 20,000 words and just 1 or 2 commas or full stops.1 -
The apostrophe rule about contractions must surely mean a greengrocer's sign* like this (no matter how irritating some of us may find it) is actually therefore okay:
Tomato's, £1.78 per kg
* An interesting(?) difference: I've written 'a greengrocer's sign' above. If that were in German, and I wanted to speak of a greengrocer's signs (i.e. more than one), I would omit the apostrophe, just have the 's'. The apostrophe is only used for possession in German when the possessed item is singular.2 -
Much more down to earth, it is depressing to see how many can't distinguish between "it's" as a contraction of It is and "its" as possessive... or worse you're from your...jimmyjams said:The apostrophe rule about contractions must surely mean a greengrocer's sign* like this (no matter how irritating some of us may find it) is actually therefore okay:
Tomato's, £1.78 per kg
* An interesting(?) difference: I've written 'a greengrocer's sign' above. If that were in German, and I wanted to speak of a greengrocer's signs (i.e. more than one), I would omit the apostrophe, just have the 's'. The apostrophe is only used for possession in German when the possessed item is singular.
When I have to mark students' work, I can't knock them for grammar, so I generally ask them to resubmit something legible.left the forum March 20230 -
They just applied the rule you have been beating them with.ugo.santalucia said:
Much more down to earth, it is depressing to see how many can't distinguish between "it's" as a contraction of It is and "its" as possessive... or worse you're from your...ugo.santalucia said:The apostrophe has two functions: it marks possession, and it is used in contractions to indicate the place where the letters have been omitted.
That's it0 -
*Old fart mode activated*
The students on my University courses almost all had English GCSE at grade A, before achieving very high A levels in sciences. Very few of them had any recollection of how to use apostrophes.1 -
Kerouak's "On The Road" was originally written in one sitting as one piece with no paragraphs, etc.jimmyjams said:ugo.santalucia said:There's a Portuguese novelist... what's his name... Saramago! He doesn't use punctuation
Not that I expect anyone on here to have read anything other than Harry Potter...
I had to look Saramago up, however as alternate, some of us know Molly Bloom’s Soliloquy – over 20,000 words and just 1 or 2 commas or full stops.
.The camera down the willy isn't anything like as bad as it sounds.
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I'm wondering how many times Ugo is having to re-read every post now to make sure he doesn't make an error with punctuation.
It's never a good idea to start a thread like this.1 -
Press is quite right, Ugo's made a rod for his own back. But I agree with his general point, apostrophes added to plurals irks me somewhat. Should that be apostrophe's added to plural's?0
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Once I commented to a student that we could have done a trade... a bag of apostrophes in return for a bag of commas, as he was very shy with the latter!left the forum March 20230
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mrfpb said:
Its as a possesive shurly should be it's
If the language itself is so inconsistent, why bother getting it right?
Yours is a very fair question.
In speech you can't hear apostrophes, but the advantage of the written word is that delivery and comprehension can be far far quicker if the conventions are adhered to. And yes, some of those are inconsistent (his, hers), but generally what we've ended up with is the least worst compromise, inconsistencies 'n' all.0 -
.ugo.santalucia said:Once I commented to a student that we could have done a trade... a bag of apostrophes in return for a bag of commas, as he was very shy with the latter!
I have advised some students to stop using apostrophes altogether, because they would get it right much more often.
Don’t get me started on commas (where they go, rather than the number).
I am aware that I over-use parentheses (or maybe I mean brackets).
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Where are you on Woden’s day, Thor’s day etc., Ugo?0
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It had an apostophe, it was it's apostrophe. The It has to become possesive, therefore requires and apostrophe (using the rules applied to other nouns)0
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What???Mad_Malx said:Where are you on Woden’s day, Thor’s day etc., Ugo?
left the forum March 20230 -
I'm guessing that they are examples of where apostrophes have disappeared, and yet the world keeps turning.ugo.santalucia said:
What???Mad_Malx said:Where are you on Woden’s day, Thor’s day etc., Ugo?
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That’s much better put than I would have managed.briantrumpet said:
I'm guessing that they are examples of where apostrophes have disappeared, and yet the world keeps turning.ugo.santalucia said:
What???Mad_Malx said:Where are you on Woden’s day, Thor’s day etc., Ugo?
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This thread prompted me to look up the origin.
The explanation appears to be that the original possessive form was “...es” , and the modern “ ‘s “ is also a contraction. Cf. Ugo’s and Ugoes. Unfortunately with modern keyboards it actually requires more key strokes than the original.0 -
^which also explains the spelling of Wednesday.0
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No, he was the baddie in The Man with the Golden Gun.ugo.santalucia said:There's a Portuguese novelist... what's his name... Saramago! He doesn't use punctuation
Not that I expect anyone on here to have read anything other than Harry Potter...0 -
ugo.santalucia said:
"its" is already possessive, no need to make it possessive, don't be ridiculousmrfpb said:Its as a possesive shurly should be it's
If the language itself is so inconsistent, why bother getting it right?
I'm probably missing something here but its (possessive without an apostrophe) is just an exception to the rule to distinguish it from it's (it is).
Unless I suppose you consider it a pronoun like his ?
[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]0 -
Googled it - seems it used to be it's but changed a couple of hundred years ago to bring it into line with other possessive pronouns, like Ugo said.
I used to share an office with some guy who was a grammar nut - I probably should have listened to him.[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]1 -
Can you squeeze another question mark in there?ugo.santalucia said:
What???Mad_Malx said:Where are you on Woden’s day, Thor’s day etc., Ugo?
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The?re.
That looks odd though.!!!1 -
.!!!morstar said:The?re.
That looks odd though.!!!0 -
Overuse of ellipses is another problem some suffer from...0
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yeP’?darkhairedlord said:
.!!!morstar said:The?re.
That looks odd though.!!!0 -
Is that an ellipses? The definition I looked up, as I wasn't sure what one was, says they should be separate by a fullstop but that looks odd. Discuss . . .TheBigBean said:Overuse of ellipses is another problem some suffer from...
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Pross said:
Is that an ellipses? The definition I looked up, as I wasn't sure what one was, says they should be separate by a fullstop but that looks odd. Discuss . . .TheBigBean said:Overuse of ellipses is another problem some suffer from...
Since pedantry is where it's at here, that should be "an ellipsis" 0
