Apostrophes

[mistertassie]

Perhaps no little piece of punctuation is as horribly missused as the poor apostrophe. It is used all over the place and often it doesn't belong.
So here, students, are the only places you should be using apostrophes:

1. Contractions. Any time you are omitting letters from a word. Rock 'n' roll, twelve o'clock, don't, won't ne'er-do-well, and so on.

Comments

[rosa_draconum]

Well, I have a question for you, Mr. Tassie. What about plural possessive nouns that end with an S? For example, if I were to speak about the car belonging to the kids. Would it be "the kids' car" or "the kids's car?" I have seen it written both ways, though I'm fairly sure the first is correct.

[mistertassie]

You are correct. The kids' car is the right way.

[taluagel]

So wait, you used o'clock as an example of dropping a letter, doesn't it stand for "of the clock?"

Because you know, it's then apperently a ok to just drop entire parts of sentences and replace them with an apostrophe.

Unrelated to this, would you like t' lattes in 2 weeks?

[mistertassie]

Yes, Dan, an apostrophe can be substituted for more than one letter - even on occasion entire words.

To answer your unrelated question, I'd be happy to go to Snakes and Lattes in two weeks (note, small numbers should be written out as words).

[mrs_blackstone]

I always get hung up on whether it should be "two week's notice" or "two weeks notice". I feel like it should be the latter, but I don't always trust my brain.

[mistertassie]

Both are wrong. You are giving two weeks' notice. The notice belongs to the two weeks and the weeks are plural.

[mrs_blackstone]

Thank you!

[mistertassie]

You are welcome. It's what I'm here for.

Possessive nouns and pronouns ending in 's'?

[ext_247786]

You didn't cover what happens when you refer to Jesus' robe, or the bus' front wheel. (I think I used that correctly for 'bus' *confused*)

Re: Possessive nouns and pronouns ending in 's'?

[ext_247786]

And, apparently, I should've read the other comments. ~_^

Re: Possessive nouns and pronouns ending in 's'?

[mistertassie]

We all make mistakes or over look things from time to time, Ben. I won't hold it against you.