Correct use of apostrophes

iCraig · 19 Jun 2006 at 09:30

dirtydog said:
Something else you see on these forums and lots of other places are things like:

"on it's own"

which makes as much sense as writing their's, your's or her's.

Most people seem to think it is correct though, but they are of course wrong.

They are not far from the correct usage though, so it's not exactly a million miles away.

It's can be used to abbreviate it is. (It's cold in here.)

dirtydog · 19 Jun 2006 at 09:34

iCraig said:
They are not far from the correct usage though, so it's not exactly a million miles away.

It's can be used to abbreviate it is. (It's cold in here.)

On it's own would mean "on it is own" or "on it has own" which is gibberish

Inquisitor · 19 Jun 2006 at 09:34

vaultingSlinky said:
does an apostrophe not apply when certain parts of a word are being omitted, as in you've and it's (... it is)

A group of central processing units = a group of CPU's

With an apostrophe after each letter, it would mean centrals processings units would it not?

Apostrophes are not just indicators of ownership

If we are being totally gramatically correct, anything appended to CPU is incorrect as it isnt an acryonym (unlike scuba or radar) and we should be writing out central processing unit if we are being gramatically correct, but we are lazy

Acronyms and initialisms (

) do not require apostrophes as they are technically words in their own right, so C'P'U's wouldn't make sense. As such, CPUs is perfectly correct as a word

Something else that gets to me is people's tendency to omit the final s simply because the word already ends in s. Why is this necessary? Would you pronounce it as "Jess car", or "Pythagoras theorem"? :confused:

Although it's pretty much been accepted in the English language, it's something I've always considered grammatically incorrect, as its meaning is ambiguous, not only in pronunciation, but also in writing.

theMAD2 · 19 Jun 2006 at 09:35

It's can be used to abbreviate it is. (It's cold in here.)

Yup, but its would be used for "not its fault". I usually go by the "belongs to" rule, where if something belongs to someone/thing, like "that is Steve's coat" and for plural "there are two Steves working here". I see a lot of people use a ' for ever s after a word, and it just looks strange.

dirtydog · 19 Jun 2006 at 09:39

theMAD2 said:
I usually go by the "belongs to" rule

There are exceptions to that rule though aren't there, ie. its, yours, hers and theirs. I learned that in school but it seems a lot of people didn't. I was playing Gran Turismo 4 recently and I noticed that it has a widespread incorrect use of apostrophes.

theMAD2 · 19 Jun 2006 at 09:42

There are exceptions to that rule though aren't there, ie. its, yours, hers and theirs. I learned that in school but it seems a lot of people didn't. I was playing Gran Turismo 4 recently and I noticed that it has a widespread incorrect use of apostrophes.

Yeah, it's quite shocking! The worst one I saw was a book shop called "Book's" I wish I had a camera phone on me at the time!

iCraig · 19 Jun 2006 at 10:06

dirtydog said:
On it's own would mean "on it is own" or "on it has own" which is gibberish

Yep, which is where the confusion lies with most.

At least it isn't as bad as what I got on a birthday card once.

"Have an happy birthday youv'e eurnt it, load's of love"

SourChipmunk · 19 Jun 2006 at 13:01

SideWinder said:
80s.

'80s. You're omitting the 19 and replacing it with an apostrophe.

I once developed a website for a salon named "Lifes Little Secrets". I pointed out the error to the owner, but she already had her store sign and business cards printed and couldn't change it. I cringed every time I worked on the site.