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Abuse of apostrophe's really annoys I. As does bad grammar.
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I know how they should be used but my typing runs away with me leading to mistakes like a possessive it's.
Well recall embarrassment of sitting in front of retired Cabinet Minister/Quango Chair in a memo to whom I'd committed that sin - it was ringed in red on copy he had on his desk during our discussion of his forthcoming meetings.
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You would if the meaning of a sentence affected your life in a significant way. .
That's the point of Eats Shoots and Leaves.
English, what a language.
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>> You would if the meaning of a sentence affected your life in a significant way.
>> .
>>
>> That's the point of Eats Shoots and Leaves.
There is no apostrophe in spoken english, Thats why we invented "context". Funnily enough it can be employed by the reader if they so wished. Those who dont tend to be narrow minded and stuck on outdated "rules", rules they misconstrue as standards and intelligence.
>>English, what a language.
Funnily enough it changes, ask Shakespeare, who today would be accused of being illiterate because of his spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 2 Dec 19 at 07:58
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Ever wondered why we use ‘s which is in fact a contracted form of es as a possessive marker?
When we use of in English, we are using a preposition to essentially mark genitive case. When we use 's, we are using a case marker on the possessor noun to mark the case. There are a large number of languages that use a suffix to mark case, including genitive case, so in that sense English is not strange.
The thing that is interesting is that English does not, for all practical purposes, have an overt case system anymore, except in a few rare and not-particularly-productive situation, and yet 's is quite productive.
The Saxon genitive came about as a result of the case system of Old English. In Old English, every noun was marked with case, as is done today in languages like Russian. It so happened that the genitive case marker for the masculine and neuter genitive singular was -es (Old English also had three genders, like modern German).
As the case and gender systems faded out of English in general, this -es form was generalized to be used on all nouns, singular and plural.
So, the reason English has the Saxon genitive today is because it used to have a full case system, and did not happen to lose this one particular case marker, probably due to its utility in showing possession.
So now you know .
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Mon 2 Dec 19 at 10:38
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I must say it matters to me.
I usually notice whenever I read a misused apostrophe. Of course in most communication it doesn't actually matter, but I still notice.
However, should it be in a formal letter, a CV, an application or any other written communication of import then I think it comments on the effort put in to that communication by the author.
It certainly feeds into my opinion of the document and therefore the author. Along the lines of "if you don't care enough to put the effort into writing it, why should I care enough to put the effort into reading it?".
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Anybody who reads a lot and is reasonably literate will notice such errors and be diverted, if only momentarily, from taking in the meaning of whatever they are reading. Best avoided.
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Exactly, it trips me up, I scan the last few words again, lose the thread...the odd slip is inevitable but when it's one after another I start to resent it a bit.
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The Apostrophe Society has Left the Building - The Melting Snowman
