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Apostrophe's

James-M

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James-M Trials King

James-M

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Avoid using an apostrophe to indicate a plural. The incorrect use of an apostrophe to form the plural is called the greengrocer's apostrophe, since grocers are often the worst (or at least the most visible) offenders. If you have more than one apple, then write apples, not apple's. If you cannot replace the word with "his," "her," or "their" and if it isn't a contraction, then an apostrophe should not be used.

People often forget the rules when a word ends in a vowel, such as the word "mango." Many people write "mango's" instead of "mangos" or "mangoes".

An exception to this use is in the case of making a single letter plural. Therefore, Why are there so many i's in the word "indivisibility"? is correct. This is simply for clarity reasons, so the reader does not mistake it for the word "is." However, in modern usage, the preference is to avoid inserting an apostrophe and instead surround the single letter in quotation marks before pluralizing it: Why are there so many "i"s in the word "indivisibility"?

Similarly, apostrophes can be used when talking about a word (e.g., this list contains a lot of do's and don't's) but quotation marks can make it clearer ("do"s and "don't"s).

An exception can also be made for numbers and abbreviations, although some consider this old fashioned, illogical and unnecessary.

"I bought many CD's in the 1990's." Correct.

"I bought many CDs in the 1990s." Also correct and more modern.

Use apostrophes to indicate possession. There are two basic methods that make use of an apostrophe in constructing the possessive. Most words use an apostrophe followed by an "s" at the end of the word, although many situations require simply an apostrophe.

Place an apostrophe before the "s" when you are indicating a singular possessive, unless the name or word ends in "s," in which case either is correct. (James's dog or James' dog, Dickens' novel or Dickens's novel)

"Jacob's shoes are very cool." The shoes belong to Jacob (singular: one person).

"I found the dog's old bone buried in the backyard." The bone belongs to the dog (singular: a single dog).

Place an apostrophe after the "s" when you are dealing with a possessive plural case that has an "s" at the end (e.g., book to books, tree to trees). But if the word is plural without an "s" at the end, this rule does not apply; add an apostrophe and an "s" as if the word were singular.

"Look at all of the sailors' boats!" The boats belong to the sailors (plural: there is more than one sailor).

"The children's dresses were pink and frilly." The dresses belong to the children, but since the word children is already plural without having to add an "s" at the end, this is an exception.

Use apostrophes in contractions. Sometimes, especially in informal writing, apostrophes are used to indicate one or more missing letters. For example, the word "don't" is short for "do not"; other examples include "isn't," "wouldn't," and "can't." Contractions can also be made with the verbs "is," "has," and "have." For example, we can write "She's going to school" instead of "She is going to school"; or "He's lost the game" instead of "He has lost the game." A similar usage can be found in the notation of calendar years, as in '07. In this case, the apostrophe appears in the spot where the missing numbers would have been (before the number, not after as in 07').

Be aware of the its/it's trap. Use an apostrophe with the word "it" only when you want to indicate a contraction for "it is" or "it has." Its is a pronoun, and pronouns have their own possessive form that does not use an apostrophe. For example, "That noise? It's just the dog eating its bone." This may seem confusing, but it follows the same pattern as other possessive pronouns: his, hers, its, yours, ours, theirs.

Throwing in apostrophes willy-nilly quickly shows that the writer does not understand the rules about possessives, contractions, and plurals. If in doubt, err on the side of leaving out the apostrophe.

Don't put an apostrophe within your name on your return address label. If your surname is "Greenwood," then "The Greenwoods" is correct, while "the Greenwood's" is incorrect. "The Greenwoods" indicates the residence of more than one person with the surname Greenwood, not some sort of possession.

Never write "her's." Her's is not a word, just as you would not write "him's". Recall that possessive pronouns do not need an apostrophe: his, hers, its, yours, ours, theirs.

When a word ends in "y," as in "try," take extra care when changing the verb form. For example, "try" does not become "try's". "Tries" is correct.

Do not use apostrophes or quotation marks for emphasis. For example, take a billboard that says: Joe Schmo, the "best" realtor in town! It makes the word "best" appear sarcastic, and untrue, rather than emphasized.

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monkeyseemonkeydo Post Whore

monkeyseemonkeydo

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Not when all he done was Ctrl C and V. :giggle:

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Apostrophes

Excellent detective work! I thought it must be something like that but didn't bother to check.

I think I may start a very useful thread making sure that everyone is fully aware of the importance of quantum cellular automata, you know, just in case.

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