Questions relating to the use of the apostrophe (’).
45
votes
5answers
11k views
“My wife and I's seafood collaboration dinner”
I just stumbled upon a Reddit post titled:
My wife and I's seafood collaboration dinner. How does it look?
Sure enough, the top comment immediately points out that it should be "my wife's and ...
36
votes
3answers
4k views
What is the correct possessive for nouns ending in “‑s”?
What is the possessive of a noun ending in ‑s? Are these both right, or is the second one wrong?
the boys' books
the boss' car
35
votes
6answers
2k views
When did it become correct to add an “s” to a singular possessive already ending in “‑s”?
According to my grammar book, but at variance to the answer to this question, the correct singular possessive if a word ends in ‑s is:
James’s car
The grammar book allows exceptions for ...
21
votes
7answers
6k views
Plurals of acronyms, letters, numbers — use an apostrophe or not?
When I was in high school back in the 1970s, I was taught that to make a plural of an acronym, a letter, or a number, one should add an apostrophe and "s". Like I would have written this sentence, ...
20
votes
2answers
343 views
Use of lone apostrophe for plural?
I've been reading William Manchester's book "American Caesar", which is about Douglas MacArthur, and I found that he uses a strange convention for pluralizing the family name. When talking about the ...
18
votes
2answers
26k views
Is there an apostrophe in a master's degree?
The question asks it all really. When referring to a master's degree, do you use an apostrophe or not? That is, is it "a master's" or "a masters"?
17
votes
4answers
1k views
How is a' in mathematics pronounced?
It often happens that two or more similar values are distinguished with the ' symbol, e.g. a, a', a'' and similar. How is this pronounced?
17
votes
3answers
841 views
Possessive of a word that is already possessive
If the cricket ground Lord's is a possessive, what if you want to describe something belonging to Lord's? Would you say "I was very impressed by Lord's's customer services"?
It doesn't look right, ...
16
votes
3answers
1k views
Apostrophe in “beginners guide”
In the phrase beginners guide to …, where should the apostrophe go?
Beginner’s Guide to […]
Beginners’ Guide to […]
In my particular case, this is the title for a presentation so there are ...
14
votes
2answers
423 views
What is the correct spelling of “buyer* remorse”?
Apostrophical query:
a) Buyers Remorse
b) Buyer Remorse
c) Buyer's Remorse
d) Buyers' Remorse
My guess is b or c, as it seems like any example is talking about the remorse of one specific buyer, ...
13
votes
2answers
616 views
Why is there a distinction between “its” and “it's”?
While I know technically the English language has a distinction because when there's a conflict between the possessive form and a contraction, the contraction wins. That is:
Its is the possessive ...
12
votes
4answers
572 views
Why did they spell it “URL’s”?
I was reading this documentation file of some software and note the plural spelling of this abbreviation is “URL’s”. Why isn’t it “URLs”?
12
votes
3answers
6k views
Which is the correct idiom: “First thing's first” or “First things first”?
I've gotten into a debate over which usage of an apostrophe in the phrase "first thing(')s first" is correct.
My thinking is that one would take the first thing and give it priority, hence the first ...
12
votes
5answers
3k views
“Do's” and “don'ts” or “do's” and “don't's”?
I am making a list to my children telling them what are some of the things they should do and shouldn't. Under one side is "do", and the other is "don't".
Would I write "do's" and "don't's"?
Cause ...
11
votes
4answers
1k views
11
votes
4answers
4k views
What is the pronunciation of the possessive words that already end in s? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
When did it become correct to add an ‘s’ to a singular possessive already ending in ‘s’?
Which singular names ending in “s” form possessives with only a bare apostrophe?
...
10
votes
5answers
431 views
Are apostrophes actually needed?
I don't mean to make it grammatically correct I mean does English need them?
I can't seem to find a use case other than it's "legacy" in English, but that is never a reason to keep something around.
...
10
votes
5answers
4k views
Apostrophe-“s” vs “of ”
I gave a quick answer to part of this question which had not been covered by previous answers, trying to clarify the reason you would say time of decoding but not decoding’s time. I said it was ’s ...
10
votes
3answers
316 views
Where did the practice of using apostrophes for possessive nouns but not pronouns originate?
Where did the practice of using apostrophes for possessive nouns but not pronouns originate?
For example, possessive nouns (both proper and common) are written with a apostrophe before the final s:
...
10
votes
3answers
32k views
“Doctor's appointment” or “doctors appointment”?
I've looked this up online, but I can't find any explanations from reasonably credible sources, so I'm posting my question here! (Was that a comma splice?)
Should I refer to the appointment that I ...
10
votes
1answer
1k views
Is it common for place names to lose their possessive apostrophe?
On a road trip, my wife and I drove by Kings Dominion. We debated whether this should in actuality be King’s Dominion. It seemed that it ought to be possessive, or possibly plural possessive.
Upon ...
10
votes
3answers
284 views
What proposals have been made to give the apostrophe some relief?
The apostrophe has a lot of jobs.
It makes things possessive,
it indicates the omissions of letters in
contractions and numbers in dates,
it is used to indicate strange
accents in dialog, and
it ...
9
votes
1answer
829 views
Origins of possessive pronouns
If apostrophe + s is the acceptable way of denoting a genitive in English, is it possible that possessive pronouns, such as hers, ours and yours, started life as possessive adjectives with apostrophe ...
9
votes
2answers
786 views
Apostrophes in contractions: shan't, sha'n't or sha'nt?
I came across the word sha'n't when reading Winnie the Pooh the other day and it cast me into a Thoughtful Mood concerning the Appropriate Spelling of this word.
This word is a contraction of "shall ...
8
votes
2answers
967 views
Preferred way to apostrophise in case of dual or multiple ownership by distinct entities [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“Nikki's and Alice's X” vs. “Nikki and Alice's X”
Consider describing the wedding of X and Y. If I want to avoid the overly-formal ...
8
votes
2answers
697 views
Is “ ’s ” ever correct for pluralization?
A relatively modern dictionary (I don’t know which one, because we’ve cut out the pages and used them as wallpaper in our bathroom, but I know it’s less than 20 years old) indicates that R’s is one ...
8
votes
3answers
438 views
What rules determine the apostrophe placement in “ham 'n eggs” and similar expressions?
In expressions such as "ham 'n eggs", the conjunction 'n appears to replace and, yet there is only one apostrophe to indicate the missing a and none for the missing d (i.e., no "ham 'n' eggs").
Is ...
8
votes
1answer
598 views
How did an apostrophe plus the letter “s” come to indicate possession? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Origins of possessive pronouns
How did English come to use "apostrophe s" to indicate possession, when it seems to me that few (if any!) other languages do (or do ...
7
votes
7answers
3k views
Apostrophes and caps in Happy Mother’s Day / Happy Mothers’ Day
So, I’m writing this as it is Mother’s (or maybe Mothers’) Day today, and I was wondering what would be a correct way to write that.
Should the apostrophe come be between the r and the s, or after ...
7
votes
3answers
445 views
Should it be “one”, “ones” or “one's” in a company's slogan?
I saw a tow truck with a slogan running the length of the bed.
Were the "ones" to call
What drew my attention was the past tense without an apostrophe, and the inappropriate use of quotation ...
7
votes
1answer
309 views
Achilles heel and Achilles tendon
Studying possessive apostrophes I have searched on ELU the questions correlated to this matter.
I have found the following: «What is the correct possessive for nouns ending in s?» and ...
7
votes
4answers
6k views
What is the possessive of “you guys”?
Most people seem to stumble over this. The problem can arise with any multi-word phrase that needs a possessive but ends in S, and so sounds awkward using the clitic apostrophe-S. I've heard this ...
7
votes
1answer
1k views
“2 hours' worth” or “2 hours worth”?
I think "1 hour’s worth" is the correct way to write this. Therefore, in the plural case, I assume the correct choice is "2 hours’ worth". Which one is it?
Just wondering because someone edited a ...
7
votes
1answer
416 views
With the phrase “good night” do you have to use an apostrophe before the word “night” if you are to omit the use of “good?”
Am I actually contracting the phrase by omitting "good" from it, hence the need for the use of an apostrophe?
6
votes
3answers
1k views
Is “what’s” a correct short form of “what does”?
E.g. “What’s he think?”
Usually ’s is short for “is” so I don’t know.
6
votes
4answers
182 views
Using apostrophes correctly
I've read a great article about the usage of apostrophes. But there are still some points that are unclear.
Why do we say...
school project but not school's project?
car service but not car's ...
6
votes
2answers
210 views
“Nikki's and Alice's X” vs. “Nikki and Alice's X”
Which option is grammatical?
There will be readings from Nikki Giovanni’s and Alice Walker’s writings.
There will be readings from Nikki Giovanni and Alice Walker's writings.
Saying it ...
6
votes
1answer
1k views
What possessive pronouns do have an apostrophe?
I was explaining it's vs. its to someone the other day, and I said "None of the pronouns (his, hers, theirs, yours, its, whose, ...) has an apostrophe." Later I got to wondering whether that was ...
6
votes
1answer
185 views
“Dawkins'” or “Dawkins's” [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
When did it become correct to add an 's' to a singular possessive already ending in 's'?
I learned from school to use Dawkins', for example
That is ...
5
votes
9answers
1k views
Just how important are grammar and spelling?
A blog post of mine made it on the Hacker News front page. My blog post was mainly intended for a very, very small audience, but ended up getting around 20,000 views in one day. The most talked about ...
5
votes
4answers
332 views
Usage of apostrophe in “baker’s dozen”
In the phrase “baker’s dozen”, why does the apostrophe indicate possession of a (single) baker? Shouldn't it indicate possession of all bakers in general? Shouldn’t it be “bakers’ dozen”?
5
votes
2answers
19k views
“Today's assumption” or “todays assumption” — which is valid grammar?
We (non native English-speakers) are writing a paper and are wondering if the following construct is valid English:
Yesterday's assumption is no longer valid.
Specifically the apostrophe after ...
5
votes
3answers
2k views
Do things use apostrophe for indicating possessive? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is using the possessive 's correct in “the car's antenna”?
If someone owns something I would say: Mom's car.
But if the owner is not a person, does ...
5
votes
2answers
884 views
Plural name apostrophe position
At my English lesson the native English speaker couldn’t tell what is correct and promised to search it for us!
He told us that if James is one person then we should write
James' Book
but if ...
5
votes
2answers
297 views
How is “apostrophe s” used here?
I heard someone on a TV show say:
What's it all mean?
As far as I know, 's could be the short form of has and is. But in this case, it seems more like to be the short form of does. Am I correct?
...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
How to indicate possession when using abbreviation “Dr.”
I often run into a case where I need to say I have a doctor's appointment, but how would I properly punctuate it if I wanted to use the abbreviation Dr. instead of the word doctor? Dr.'s appointment ...
5
votes
5answers
1k views
What’s the correct plural possessive of “kids”?
I know that children’s books is correct, but for some reason I want to say kids books, even though I know that it’s a plural possessive noun ending in an s.
A quick search on the web turns up Barnes ...
5
votes
1answer
721 views
Apostrophe vs. Single Quote
What is the semantic difference between apostrophe and single quote?
I see people use both of them interchangeably, but people never create two words to denote one concept. There should be a ...
5
votes
2answers
3k views
What is the correct syntax for a plural possessive of a word already ending in s? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What is the correct possessive for nouns ending in s?
Before you vote to close as a duplicate, note that these two questions deal with similar issues to this, but none ...
5
votes
3answers
154 views
Is “ O’Leary’s’s ” orthographically correct? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Possessive of a word that's already possessive?
There’s a bar near me named O’Leary’s Irish Pub—or just O’Leary’s for short. One day, they changed their menu. I ...
