Why Should The Use Of Apostrophes Confuse Anyone?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9932152/Council-bans-apostrophes-from-all-street-signs-to-avoid-confusion.html

[FredPuli43]

NJ, we are becoming an endangered species !

Sainsbury's is still used, which is good, though the company has "sainsburys" for its website, which makes sense for internet use. Harrods has given up remembering that Mr Harrod founded the enterprise. Crufts have done the same, though we diehards still write "Cruft's" . I quite forget why St Andrews, the town and the Royal and Ancient, get so concerned by the English writing the name with an apostrophe; it seems that it was ever thus.

By the way, do we correctly write " I was taught wrong" ? Is that not "taught wrongly"? Or has what appears to be an adjective in that sentence now taken the function of an adverb?

[ichkeria]

If your name is Peter and you own a horse, say, and you have a friend called Peters who also owns a horse then the apostrophe comes in extremely useful :-)

[Tilly2]

Can I just assure everyone that we do still teach pupils to use possessive and omission apostrophes in schools.

[factor-fiction]

I am not sure that schools are to blame, although I accept that some teachers don't use them correctly. I always correct misplaced or missing apostrophes and explain the rule but the usual response is a sigh and the error is almost immediately repeated as the issue is just seen as unimportant.

I can understand some of the confusion over the positioning of apostrophes (parent's/parents' evenings, it's/its, etc.) but I don't understand the regular use of apostrophes on plurals or on verbs such as he run's home or she goe's to bed.

I have today seen a Joes Fish and Chip's, and a Corner Caf'e.

Whilst I am a pedant on this topic, part of me wonders whether we should just let the apostrophe die as I reckon more than half the population don't understand how to use them and we get by without seeing the presence or position of the apostrophe in spoken English.

[ichkeria]

"By the way, do we correctly write " I was taught wrong" ? Is that not "taught wrongly"? Or has what appears to be an adjective in that sentence now taken the function of an adverb? "

"Wrong" is a valid adverb, so "I was taught wrong" is perfectly right :-)
"Wrongly" usually means "mistakenly"

[DaisyNonna]

Very fond of the apostrophe.
It's not had its day.

[Peter Pedant]

yeah but no but

it just complicates.

Gromit's Av (there is one and only Gromit)
Gromit Av (still only one)
Gromits Av ( could be plural or singular)

and what about oxen's stable - a phrase almost constantly on my lips -
if you write it as oxens stable - some one is gonna come along and say, oxen is already plural and you are trying to repluralise it again.....

oh God this reminds me of why is great britain - called great as it isnt great any more.... (1964)

the older you get the nearer you get to your childhood.

[aelmpvw]

... you missed the apostrophe from isnt

[Tilly2]

Excellent, ael! That made me laugh.

[Peter Pedant]

Yeah Ichkeria strikes the nail on the head

if she doesnt want or tires of Peter's horse rather than Peters's - recollect it is the Court of St James's and not the Court of St James - there is a word understood (Palace)

she can use instead that a letter to Queens' College will go to Cambridge and Queen's College will go to Oxford so she doesnt have to write in the university ! Useful huh ?

[FredPuli43]

Ichkeria, that's a relief, as we all say it ( that wrong can be an adverb, and not just colloquially). As to 'wrongly', Cambridge Online Dictionary helpfully gives "He even spelled his client's name wrongly" as an example of it meaning "incorrectly" So the two are largely interchangeable; 'wrong' in that sentence would be equally valid.

[aelmpvw]

:-)

[THECORBYLOON]

Fred, St Andrews has no apostrophe as it was named before the introduction of apostrophes in the sixteenth century.

[Johnh42]

Wikipedia gives King's Cross, named after the area of London and the monument to George IV

[DaisyNonna]

Wrong may be used as a noun, an adjective, an adverb or a verb.

[FredPuli43]

Thanks, Corbyloon. Apostrophes must have been invented for a practical reason, in the C16 . Seems a bit silly to get rid of them. As the old saying has it, "Never take down a fence until you've found out why it was put up" !

[FredPuli43]

Yes, Daisy, and now I'm wondering about Mae West's film title "She Done Him Wrong". That's a noun (I think) !

[sp1814]

Who would've thought a little thing like this: ' would cause so much debate?

[mikey4444]

Apostrophes are there to help make sense of a sentence. They are just as important as full stops and capital letters.

Anyone having any problem with the sentence above should read
"Eats shoots and leaves" by Lynne Truss.

It is as simple as that !

[jno]

I disagree. No doubt it's possible to come up with a sentence where an apostrophe makes a difference, but there won't be many. Full stops are vastly more important.