Apostrophes?

[PardonTheWait]

The contractor's testicles are enormous and swollen

The contractors were arrested for interfering with young boys

The contractors' mustaches were jolly impressive

 

[sniffy]

Hahaha any contenders?

 

[Raymond Lin]

I thought you need at least a C in GCSE English to go to University?

 

[PardonTheWait]

I was under the impression you needed to not be a total spastic, but every time I go to a student pub they prove me wrong

 

[The_TailGunner]

I was under the impression you needed to not be a total spastic, but every time I go to a student pub they prove me wrong

the solution, it would seem to me, would be to avoid the aforementioned crapholes and go to a decent pub.

But I agree - student pubs are full of complete spackers.

TG

 

[cuppy tea]

The contractor's testicles are enormous and swollen

The contractors were arrested for interfering with young boys

The contractors' mustaches were jolly impressive

 

[Angilion]

contractor's and contractors' can both be used for "ownership" but contractor's can obviously also mean "contractor is" so it might be best to use contractors' in some situations.

Contractor's is singular ownership - a thing belonging to or associated with one contractor.
Contractors' is plural ownership - a thing belonging to or associated with more than one contractor.

 

[Aero]

I have no idea how a 14 year old cannot understand such basic English, let alone a 20 year old. I'm genuinely interested as to how you cannot know this...?

To be honest I've always struggled with languages, I happen to be a much more maths orientated person. I find it a lot easier to have one definitive answer. I am sorry to have bemused you, however may I suggest that when someone asks for help on a particular subject they are having problems with, be it technical or something of a different nature that you think about your post and possibly think about helping them out instead?

Hope this has answered your question psyr33n.

I would just like to extend my thanks to everyone who posted! Regardless of whether it was right or wrong the effort and help is greatly appreciated.

Aero

 

[daz]

A better way of understanding the third example may be to use a name or something.

e.g. Lewis' shoes are dirty.

So it's basically instead of writing Lewises/Lewis's which are both incorrect.

Lewis's is not incorrect.

 

[Masterdog]

"James' bag is silly"
"Jess' said blah!"
"Its the republicans'"

The second one is wrong - no apostrophe needed. The third one needs an apostrophe in It's. Also, in the republicans' bit, it depends to what you're referring. If it's an exclamation ("Run! It's the republicans!") then you don't need the apostrophe. If you're referring to something belonging collectively to the republicans, then the apostrophe is in the right place.
Next week, who vs whom.

 

[Dinomania]

s for plurals ("there are several contractors")

's for possessive, or to append 'is' or 'has' to a word ("a contractor's pair of boots", "the contractor's off to work" or "she's got lots of bananas")

' also for possessive but only if the possessing subject already ends in s (i.e. "several contractors' pairs of boots" or "those are Jess' boots")



The ONLY time this should be confusing, is when using its and it's. In this case, 's is ONLY for shortening of is ("it's cold, isn't it?"). The possessive form ("its boots are made for walking") has no apostrophe, as the word it is a pronoun and changes into its, in the same way that his/hers just changes for he/she.

Edit: Actually he/she/it don't translate perfectly to eachother, but you can see what I mean...

What is that over there? It's him/her/that
Who left the washing up? He/She/It did
Whose scarf is that? His/Hers/Its
But it's her scarf, not hers. Hrrmm.

Could go on forever. I sympathise with people who have trouble with all this, as a lot of it is just gut feeling for me nowadays. When I go back to Sweden, I have similar problems in Swedish (am bilingual) as I'm out of practice. A lot of it is just learnt through it /feeling/ right, and if you don't read or speak or write (in a situation where it needs to be correct) a language enough, you can lose that familiarity.

 

[JIM_BOB7813]

Because English lessons at school consist of reading Romeo and Juliet, not learning how to write correctly. At least he's bloody trying!

So true. From what I remember, English in primary school dealt with the reading/writing/spelling basics: full stops, commas, etc.
Secondary school was mainly shakespear and poetry/creative writing. I don't remember the use of any 'advanced' punctuation like semicolons or apostrophes actually being taught formally.

 

[Masterdog]

True. My college lecturer was shocked very few of us in the class knew all the rules about apostrophe's - she went through them in one afternoon, best English lesson I'd had in years (except the creative writing ones, which I loved).







*The apostrophe was a joke btw

 

[A.N.Other]

Just remember that apostrophes are only used to indicate possession or an absence. Always avoid the "grocer's apostrophe"

When using plural acronymns such as "NGOs" or "LEDCs", there is no need for an apostrophe unless it indicates what was said above.

YES!

One of the worst ones on these forums, being a computer forum (I know, who'd believe it?), is ... CPU's. They don't own anything, people. CPUs!

 

[daz]

So true. From what I remember, English in primary school dealt with the reading/writing/spelling basics: full stops, commas, etc.
Secondary school was mainly shakespear and poetry/creative writing. I don't remember the use of any 'advanced' punctuation like semicolons or apostrophes actually being taught formally.

See whilst it is important to place punctuation etc in the correct places, doing so is really a very low level learning excercise. It doesn't require any high level thinking or creativity to use an apostrophe correctly, it's simply like learning how to use a particular tool or something.

Learning about shakespeare and other classical works as well as doing your own creative writing is incredibly important and forces you to think, learn, understand and criticise.

 

[Aero]

See whilst it is important to place punctuation etc in the correct places, doing so is really a very low level learning excercise. It doesn't require any high level thinking or creativity to use an apostrophe correctly, it's simply like learning how to use a particular tool or something.

Learning about shakespeare and other classical works as well as doing your own creative writing is incredibly important and forces you to think, learn, understand and criticise.

Whilst I agree on the whole with your statement daz, I also find that JIM_BOB7813 makes a good point as I don't think he is refering to a higher level of thinking, just more of a complex method of use. I was merely struggling to get my head round the different concepts of each use, that was all.

Aero

 

[Dinomania]

The apostrophe for plurals after acronyms and numbers are not necessarily wrong - sometimes it it helpful to differentiate between the acronym and the s, especially if say, the acronym is part of a sign written fully in capitals.

E.g.

"CDS, £5 EACH"
would be better written as:
"CD'S, £5 EACH"
or just drop the upper-case temporarily (most elegant, I think):
"CDs, £5 EACH"

This is a useful page: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=499296