torqueless
Senior Retro Guru
OK, I know I cannot be the only one who gets irked by this. I will spell it out once, just in case any of the offenders would like to get it right, otherwise it just gets wronger and wronger by contagion:
The apostrophe denotes one or more missing letters. It is used with a following "s", after a noun, to denote ownership. Either the ownership of the thing (noun) by a person, or the ownership of an attribute by a thing (or a person).
In either case, It is simply a shorthand way of writing "its" or "his"
Examples:
The bicycle its wheels are round.
becomes: The bicycle's wheels are round.
John his bicycle has round wheels.
becomes: John's bicycle has round wheels.
The apostrophe is not used for plurals.
You can test just how nonsensical it is to use an apostrophe with following "s" for a plural by replacing it with "its"
(Wrong) Example:
John has twelve bicycle's.
becomes: John has twelve bicycle its.
Since John has twelve bicycles, Let us give him the surname; "Dozen", and deploy a (hopefully) familiar scenario:
Example:
John Dozen has twelve bicycles. All of Dozen's bicycles have round wheels. John Dozen has a family. None of the other Dozens that constitute John Dozen's family give a shit about John's bicycles.
In that example there were eight opportunities to get it wrong- Eight nouns with an "s" at the end that either do or do not need an apostrophe. Just for fun let us do that example again and get it wrong eight times:
John Dozen has twelve bicycle's. All of Dozens bicycle's have round wheel's. John Dozen has a family. None of the other Dozen's that constitute John Dozens family give a shit about Johns bicycle's.
The apostrophe denotes one or more missing letters. It is used with a following "s", after a noun, to denote ownership. Either the ownership of the thing (noun) by a person, or the ownership of an attribute by a thing (or a person).
In either case, It is simply a shorthand way of writing "its" or "his"
Examples:
The bicycle its wheels are round.
becomes: The bicycle's wheels are round.
John his bicycle has round wheels.
becomes: John's bicycle has round wheels.
The apostrophe is not used for plurals.
You can test just how nonsensical it is to use an apostrophe with following "s" for a plural by replacing it with "its"
(Wrong) Example:
John has twelve bicycle's.
becomes: John has twelve bicycle its.
Since John has twelve bicycles, Let us give him the surname; "Dozen", and deploy a (hopefully) familiar scenario:
Example:
John Dozen has twelve bicycles. All of Dozen's bicycles have round wheels. John Dozen has a family. None of the other Dozens that constitute John Dozen's family give a shit about John's bicycles.
In that example there were eight opportunities to get it wrong- Eight nouns with an "s" at the end that either do or do not need an apostrophe. Just for fun let us do that example again and get it wrong eight times:
John Dozen has twelve bicycle's. All of Dozens bicycle's have round wheel's. John Dozen has a family. None of the other Dozen's that constitute John Dozens family give a shit about Johns bicycle's.