. . . . . .. . . . First, NOT
Uses of the APOSTROPHE
. . . . Some people think all plural's need apostrophe's
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .WRONG!
. . . ..Most plurals have no apostrophe
at all.
. .Very few do. Ph.D's do, 3's, 7's and A's do....
. . . . ( We will deal with the exceptions in week2, . . . .. .
. .but that is where the confusion started.)
. . . . . . The
Three Uses
. . . . . of
the Apostrophe
(1) The possessive
Example:
one dog's bone, (singular) apostrophe before the's
There is only one boy, one child, one politician.
. . . . . . . one boy's owners
. . . . . . . one child's bicycle
. . . . . . . one politician's promises
It does not matter how many "things" one boy owns.
A boy's skateboard, hockey skates,
and camping gear.
many dogs' noise (plural dogs s' ) same noise
many politicians' promises (plural politicians s' )
But some words have an irregular plural so the possessive matches the form
one child's coat (singular)
many children's shouts, (plural)
(More about plurals in a later part.)
. . . . . . . .Examples:
I'm, . . . . . . . .. . . . . .
I am
It'll, . . . . . . . . .. . . . ..it
will.
they've,... . . .. .. . . . they have
we'd better go,.. ... we had better go,
he'd go, ... . . . . . . .. he would go
don't fall, . . . . . .. . .
do not fall
It isn't hard . . . . . . .It
is not hardt
. . . . . . . .(More later.)
(3) Apostrophe as quotation mark.
Note, you Brits! Swan says you call
them inverted commas? Good to know, but news to this Canadian!
Americans say:
When there is a quotation within
another quotation, the
quoted quotation has 'single quotation marks.' How's that again?
And in the UK, Swan says you put
the doubles inside the singles? Why had we not heard of that before?
EXAMPLES: "Do as the Romans do!"
"When the dam burst,"
she said, "I heard,
'Run for your life' and it saved us."
compared to:
'When the dam burst,' she said, 'I heard, "Run
for your life" and it saved us.'
Because (Run for your life) is
separate from the rest, but in (When the dam burst I heard--and it saved
us) the longer one is all within the one set of Q-marks, whichever
it may be, then choose according to the expectations in your country.
It makes life interesting to discover new things.
.