Diane, one of our Premium subscribers, nominated this site for our site of the week, so those of you who want to chastise EB for another grim pick, hold your fire. Diane picked it and we thank her for suggesting it. Thanks so much, Diane.
We know a lot about abusing apostrophes. For years we’ve been guilty of abusing the poor little upside-down floating commas. I guess we’re not the only folks who enjoy abusing the little forlorn critters.
Let’s get serious. Apostrophe’s are important! Eightballs told me many times to mind my P’s and Q’s. But I dont listen. I just keep doing thing’s my way; thats the kind of guy I am. Theres nothing worse than seeing an apostrophe abused – yet Im hooked on it. Sometime’s I will sit down with a glass of wine and abuse the heck out of those little guy’s. Maybe Im sadistic? I knew I should have been a dentist.
Seriously – the mistakes in the above paragraph we’re intentional. I’m sure there are enough grammatical errors in the 15,000 words of this newsletter to fill a grammarian’s garbage bag. But I tells ya, folks, those there were intentional! I means it!
Since Diane is responsible for choosing this site, we assume she was tired of watching us abuse apostrophes so she sent this site suggestion as a subtle hint. Thanks, Diane. We get the hint!
Even more seriously, we hope you will take some time to visit our site of the week. If you do, you will see that we are not the only ones who enjoy abasing apostrophes. Take a look at the picture gallery on the site. You’ll see photos of apostrophe abuse on signs everywhere. If apostrophe abuse causes you mental anguish, consider yourself warned.
For the rest of you who are easily amused, like us, take a look at The Apostrophe Protection Society’s Web site. Learn all about apostrophes and see photos of apostrophe abuse even more vicious than ours. Really!
I’m not perfect, but mis-used apostrophes drive me up the wall! One of the worst cases I ever saw was on a beauty shop with letters at least a foot tall. They read
CUT’S CURL’S PERM’S.
Oh, thank you for trying to straighten us out!
Best Wishes,
Mary
My UK Grammar School English teacher hated apostrophes with a passion, he said it looked as if a fly had been all over the page. He also said that the English language does not need apostrophes when a person has the ability to form a word or sentence correctly as it is a slovenly and lazy way of writing, and if used incorrectly could misconstrue the meaning of the whole prose, either narrative or expository, and I agree wholeheartedly.
I looked at the web site several weeks ago and the author is now stating that the word, IT’S, no longer requires an apostrophe. I sent my comment to the author and his reply stated that he wanted to save the apostrophe, maybe he is lazy.
The website actually says, when denoting a missing letter
[it’s instead of it is or it has].
And when denoting possesion
[Please note that “Its”, which is usually used as a possessive adjective (like “our”, “his” etc), does not take an apostrophe:
the dog ate its bone and we ate our dinner
… 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
]
So an apostrophe in “its” is unnecessary only under certain circumstances.
Maybe you should write to them 🙂 You’re not talking to the world’s best grammarians here on Cloudeight you know!
I just love this new site!! CONGRATS to the folks who came up with the APS. It’s both funny and educational. Their song is so cute. I have APS in my favorites now.
PS. EB & TC, I check out every single site you tell us about.
It’s easy to remember where one should put an apostrophe if one thinks that it shows ‘belonging’.
It represents the ‘e’ of the ‘es’ of what used to be the ‘genitive case’. Those who study German will recognise it easily.
When using ITS – The apostrophe stands for the I of IS. So if you are saying ‘IT IS’ you can slur it together and lose the I. It can also show belonging when the apostrophe stands for the genitive ‘e’. I do get very annoyed when I see these basic mistakes but then I was the traditional English teacher with a Latin and German educational background. It is one reason why a Latin background was so important apart from being used for botany or medicine. But language is continually changing – even quicker now with the texting on mobile phones.
Cheers!
You think there are loads of apostrophies in English but you cannot beat the French. I went to French school and most of my friends are French and we seem to always be hitting that famous key (‘). Thanks again TC and EB for all the wonderful sites we can choose to pick or flush.
Have a wonderful day.
Thanks for this site, much needed. Would would love to know the correct way to use punctuatuon, think it makes a massive difference to a sentence.
Juel