Answer: When is it appropriate to use an apostrophe?

[kay_brooke]

tejas asks: When is it appropriate to use an apostrophe?

With examples from Star Trek and Psych.

Comments

[tejas]

Excellent post! There are many "writer's" who I hope see this. ;-)

*makes note of url to send to people*

[sg_betty]

Very useful, thanks!
Say, I have a question about names ending in 's'... I read that it is becoming standard to drop the second 's' on modern names, but retain it in archaic ones:

Xerxis's chariot
Gus' car

What do you know about that? Also, how would this apply to an archaic name used by a modern character, such as Apophis?

[kay_brooke]

I have actually heard that the other way around (the Wikipedia article on apostrophes goes a bit in to it), but many reference sources don't even mention it. It seems to have more to do with how the names are pronounced: if the second 's' makes the pronunciation of the name ungainly then the second 's' tends to be dropped. I haven't found a convincing argument for why archaic names should be treated differently than modern names, so personally, I'm skeptical. But very little about English grammar makes perfect sense.

Not to sound like a broken record, but when it comes to characters like Apophis I'd say just go with personal preference. I, for example, would spell it "Apophis's," because I like to use the second 's' for all names. But I see no reason why the second 's' couldn't be dropped if that's what you prefer.

[sg_betty]

Thanks! Yeah, it makes no sense to me that archaic names would be treated differently. And what happens when some misguided soul names their child Xerxis? Is it no longer archaic? Bah! Unnecessary weirdness... ;)

[donutsweeper]

Shawn wondered what Gus' car would look like painted orange.

Shawn wondered what Gus's car would look like painted orange.

AHA! I'd wondered about that. I'd been taught Gus's but when I wrote (in NCIS fandom) Gibbs's I was told time and time again I was wrong. But it turns out both are the right way to write it!

[diebirchen]

To be used as a single quotation mark within regular quotation marks for a quote within a quote.

"Did he say, 'Bugger'?" she queried.

[kay_brooke]

A single quotation mark is technically a different punctuation mark from the apostrophe, even though on a computer keyboard the same key is used to make both. There's a more in-depth article on single quotation marks here.

[diebirchen]

Thanks, and you're right, of course, but I know 'em all and several style manuals by heart.
FGoVU