tracyjacks
New Member
It's wrong.
Although apparently you do use an apostrophe to form the plural of abbreviations with periods (W.M.D.'s, P.S.'s) and of lowercase letters (mind your p's and q's).
|
|
|
Spellin' and gramma
- Thread starter BuildTO
- Start date
It's wrong.
Although apparently you do use an apostrophe to form the plural of abbreviations with periods (W.M.D.'s, P.S.'s) and of lowercase letters (mind your p's and q's).
BuildTO
Active Member
Note that acronyms using periods are becoming archaic.
doady
Senior Member
So you don't have to use apostrophe for plural of uppercase letters? So I can just write Oakland A's and as Oakland As and it doesn't matter, right?
As, Is and Us
I'll also write the plural of Nikon D70 as D70s.
H
Hydrogen
Guest
unimaginative2
Senior Member
I always cringe when I see decades with the apostrophe. It'll always be 70s and 80s to me. It just makes sense. It's not possessive.
BuildTO
Active Member
So you don't have to use apostrophe for plural of uppercase letters? So I can just write Oakland A's and as Oakland As and it doesn't matter, right?
As, Is and Us
That's actually right. Context disambiguates, as there would be no reason to misread the "As" in "Oakland As" as "as", since it has a capital. The only exception to this would be if you were referring to the Oakland As and began a new sentence with "As". In that case, you would use an apostrophe to disambiguate from the word "as" beginning the sentence with a capital.
tracyjacks
New Member
Okay, 'cause that's how it should be.
tkip
Active Member
Arrgh! My head hurts.....
Read the previous posts and its already given me a headache. Bringing back too many memories of my past english classes. As for when to use a apostrophe? You know something, I never did quite get the hang of using them properly even from an early age onward. Still not quite sure how to use them properly.
Read the previous posts and its already given me a headache. Bringing back too many memories of my past english classes. As for when to use a apostrophe? You know something, I never did quite get the hang of using them properly even from an early age onward. Still not quite sure how to use them properly.
unimaginative2
Senior Member
It's simple. If it's possessive or there are missing letters in the word, you use an apostrophe. If not, no apostrophe.
ganjavih
Senior Member
It's not that simple. 'Its' is possessive and there's no apostrophe.
tkip
Active Member
Arrrgh!
"It's not that simple. 'Its' is possessive and there's no apostrophe." See? This doesn't help my headache. It's getting worse. Or is that its geting worse? So...... if I say it's instead of it is then I use an apostrophe but if I say something like the school and its rules, then apostrophe or no?
This reminds me of something.
Lately I learned one of co-workers is leaving to go teach english somewhere in latin america. The funny thing is that this person's grammar is horrible. Actually, horrible is being too kind to them. Unholy is more accurate.
Their background in english is somewhat shaky from what I can tell. Constant spelling mistakes and a complete nightmare for when trying to read what they have written. I highly doubt that the 5 day course they took is really going to change this either. Just had to add this.....
"It's not that simple. 'Its' is possessive and there's no apostrophe." See? This doesn't help my headache. It's getting worse. Or is that its geting worse? So...... if I say it's instead of it is then I use an apostrophe but if I say something like the school and its rules, then apostrophe or no?
This reminds me of something.
Lately I learned one of co-workers is leaving to go teach english somewhere in latin america. The funny thing is that this person's grammar is horrible. Actually, horrible is being too kind to them. Unholy is more accurate.
Their background in english is somewhat shaky from what I can tell. Constant spelling mistakes and a complete nightmare for when trying to read what they have written. I highly doubt that the 5 day course they took is really going to change this either. Just had to add this.....
BuildTO
Active Member
it's = it is (correct)
the school and its rules (correct)
It's up to the school to do proper screening of its (teaching) applicants. I have attended Spanish courses at the Spanish Centre here, and have complete confidence that I am being taught by people who are really knowledgeable about their mother tongue.
Your example sounds bad, but it *might* not be as bad as you imagine (although it probably is). In Japan, for example, where many people with no grammar background go to teach English, there are many jobs in which you are there only to provide an example as a fluent English speaker. You might work in a class with a qualified language teacher and be expected only to speak in front of the class so they can hear the pronunciation and have a chance to practise dialogue with an English speaker.
BuildTO
Active Member
The biggest confusion comes when you combine possessive and plural. It's not that complicated, but it does take some memorization.
single subject: doctor
possessive: doctor's (apostrophe goes before the 's')
example: The patient forgot her doctor's name.
plural subject: doctors
possessive: doctors' (apostrophe goes after the 's')
example: At the conference, the organizers had a list of all of the doctors' names.
Simple, no?