Apostrophe's Apostrophes
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- Category: Megan's Grammar Garden
- Published on Sunday, 29 January 2012 20:55
- Written by Megan
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Megan’s Grammar Garden: Apostrophes’ Apostrophes
We see them everywhere, used willy-nilly and carefully, sparingly, often forgotten: apostrophes. What do they do? Why do they matter? And why does it drive me so crazy when an apostrophe is used incorrectly?
Apostrophes serve two purposes: to contract words, and to show possession. Contrary to popular belief (as suggested by social media such as Facebook, and even some products distributed nationally, such as Johnson & Johnson’s baby bubble bath & wash), apostrophes do not show pluralization.
What about the difference between “Aunts we’re going to the grocery store” and “Aunts were going to the grocery store”? The difference is one little mark: an apostrophe. And what a huge difference it makes.
Possession. Without getting into too much detail, possession is also known as the genitive case. The short history lesson is that the apostrophe emerged from this case, which had rules about adding “-s” or “-es” to the end of a word to show who or what owned the object. Possession shows to whom something belongs: the dog’s ball, or the queen’s throne. Plural possession places the apostrophe after the pluralization, so the ball that belongs to multiple dogs becomes the dogs’ ball (which I find odd, as I don’t think of dogs as ones to share their belongings very well).
Despite what Facebook posts might have you believe, apostrophe’s (<---- see that? I did that on purpose) do not mark pluralization. What belongs to the apostrophes in that sentence? Do the apostrophes own anything there? No, they don’t. They simply exist as the subject of a secondary clause. It’s a comment on the use of the punctuation mark. Nothing more, and nothing less. Using an apostrophe to mark pluralization just confuses the reader, and leaves the reader looking for ownership when none is needed or warranted.
Watch out for those stray apostrophes in your own writing. Spend a week specifically looking for stray possessive apostrophes in everything you read, from books and magazines to blogs and Facebook posts and tweets. You’ll find them everywhere. Next, get rid of them in your own writing, and say what you mean.
Hold on for part two, when we’ll return to apostrophes and their use in contracted words.
Fresh Dirt
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- Category: Megan's Grammar Garden
- Published on Saturday, 14 January 2012 12:00
- Written by Megan
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Grammar is dirty. For most, it's a messy system of rules and regulations that leave a person befuddled and annoyed.
Not me. I am a self-professed grammar nerd. Those who have been kind enough to not unfriend me on Facebook know that I'm enough of a nerd to go in and point out the wrong "their" was used, or an apostrophe was abused. And it's no secret I have a desire to put a tattoo that reads "grammarian" across my lower back. Becuase I'm classy like that.
Though I may be a bit of a perfectionist, I still get it wrong sometimes. I misspell words, create comma splices, and even abuse the occassional apostrophe (is it it's or its? I have to ask myself every single time). And if I get it wrong, you know others do too. Just go take a look at your Facebook feed, your emails, even advertisements on billboards (advertisers and business ownersjust love to use quotation marks on everything). In the Grammar Garden, I'll help you make sense of those rules and regulations, one mineatue at a time.
I thought about going out there and finding examples of bad grammar. They're everywhere, including in books, blogs, advertisements from large multi-national corporations, and the menus at your favorite diner. This, however, is not constructive - it doesn't offer the writer any opportunity to correct or improve, and only encourages the writer to be defensive.
Before I go spouting on too much about what I will and won't do, go do a little bit of weeding. Go read. Read as much as you can. Read blogs. Read books. Read Facebook and Twitter posts. Read menus. Read traffic signs and billboards. And when you find yourself confused, ask: "why am I confused?" I'm willing to bet that more than half the time, grammar's the fault.
As an added bonus, if you can't figure out why your confused, send the text in (email or the forums), and we'll find those grammar issues, one word at a time.
