Let me start with a confession – I’m very bad at English! I got a double-D at school and still struggle to understand the meaning of the words VERB, NOUN and ADJECTIVE. Squid would be first in line to correct me on my spelling mistakes or my bad grammar. So you could possibly forgive me for the misuse of apostrophes in sentences.
I work in the web industry, I design on a dynamic canvas which is never set in stone, so once the quality assurance people have gone through one of my websites and very eagerly pointed out my obvious mistakes they can be corrected in a matter of moments. Professionals that work in print, a journalist writing for a newspaper or a designer piecing together their latest snazzy brochure, face the stomach stomping realisation that any mistakes they miss, which subsequently get printed can’t be so easily correctly.
Apostrophes, and the use of, always spark a debate in my studio, so not knowing the in’s and out’s of their proper use I decided to Google for it. Below is a nice reference to help all those who face the confusing matter of how properly to use the dreaded apostrophe.
All can be explained
1. They are used to denote a missing letter or letters, for example:
I can’t instead of I cannot
I don’t instead of I do not
it’s instead of it is
2. They are used to denote possession, for example:
the dog’s bone
the company’s logo
Jones’s bakery (but Joneses’ bakery if owned by more than one Jones)
… but please note that the possessive form of it does not take an apostrophe any more than ours, yours or hers do
the bone is in its mouth
… however, if there are two or more dogs, companies or Joneses in our example, the apostrophe comes after the ‘s’:
the dogs’ bones
the companies’ logos
Joneses’ bakeries
3. Apostrophes are NEVER ever used to denote plurals! Common examples of such abuse (all seen in real life!) are:
Banana’s for sale which of course should read Bananas for sale
Menu’s printed to order which should read Menus printed to order
MOT’s at this garage which should read MOTs at this garage
1000′s of bargains here! which should read 1000s of bargains here!
New CD’s just in! which should read New CDs just in!
Buy your Xmas tree’s here! which should read Buy your Xmas trees here!
May I take this opportunity to thank The Apostrophe Protection Society for protecting the proper use of the apostrophe in the English language. Full credit goes to them and a further, more detailed explanation can be found here.
September 8th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Unfortunately I’m meant to get stuff like this right, so thanks for the guide
September 9th, 2008 at 7:40 am
I think that there is also the debatable edge case for the possessive apostrophe whereby a singular proper noun ending in an “s” – e.g. Jesus – ought to take an additional “s” after the apostrophe,
I.e. Jesus’s sandals.
I’m not a religious nut; I just couldn’t think of another proper noun ending in “s”.
There is also the issue of dual ownership. Take “Tony and Cherie”. If you want them to own the same thing then the last noun takes the apostrophe.
E.g. Tony and Cherie’s contraception malfunction.
However if there are two things that they own individually then they both need apostrophes.
E.g. Tony’s and Cherie’s hair styles.
There’s an article with more examples here:
http://www.squidoo.com/apostrophe
This snippet made me laugh:
http://workingknowledge.blogspot.com/2005/08/pet-peeve-apostrophes-funny.html
“The apostrophe is used mainly in hand-lettered small business signs to alert the reader that an “S” is coming up at the end of a word, as in WE DO NOT EXCEPT PERSONAL CHECK’S, or: NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ITEM’S.”
Apostrophe abuse is one of my pet hates. Can you tell?
September 9th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Heh, just looked at the example in the link I gave above where the FAIL is “Taste’s great”.
However that might not be FAIL. It may be that they’re making a statement – i.e. “Taste is great”.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Oh the delicious irony (which is like goldy and silvery, but not as expensive…):
“in’s and out’s” – neither need apostrophes – they’re plurals.
Or was that the cunningly planted deliberate mistake, designed to distract sad old linguistic pedants like me?
September 9th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
But that would make me clever, cunning, devious right? Thanks for the heads up
September 9th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Indeed it would, which was why I asked
September 9th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Either way it was funny in a geeky way :p
September 9th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Which reminds me, have you ever heard of Muprhy’s Law (spelling deliberate) that states that in any piece of writing that complains about spelling or grammar or both, there will ALWAYS be at least one howling error of spelling or grammar.
Google it and see…
September 9th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Actually, (oh god, I am in you base spamming you blog), the last word on the matter should rest here:
http://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif
The original and best.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
That’s brilliant, to quote..
“Muphry’s Law dictates that (a) if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written; (b) if an author thanks you in a book for your editing or proofreading, there will be mistakes in the book; (c) the stronger the sentiment expressed in (a) and (b), the greater the fault; (d) any book devoted to editing or style will be internally inconsistent.”
Credit: http://www.whataboutclients.com/archives/2008/07/hubris_muprhys.html
And ‘Bob’s guide…’ illustration, absolute classic, thanks for sharing that dude!
September 12th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
You’ve turned me into an apostrophe nazi.
I noticed a missing possessive apostrophe today and sent a request to the marketing department to FIIIIIIIX EEEEET.