Apostrophe needed?

[bartholomew]

Hi

When do you place an apostrophe?

Example01: I will meet you in two weeks time.

Example02: He wasted 20 years' work.

Are those sentences correct?

[Quizmonster]

In No 1, weeks should definitely also have an apopstrophe after the letter 's'...ie weeks'.

No 2 is correct.

[littleoldme]

QM is absolutely right, because you are talking about the time of two weeks (hence two weeks' time) and the work of 20 years. Had there only been one week and one year, you would have needed:

I will meet you in one week's time (the time of one week)

...and...

He wasted one year's work (the work of one year)

[Mr.Ix]

Andy Hughs is absolutely right ;)

[Xollob]

Habemus Quizmonstrum.

[Quizmonster]

How kind of you all. Thank you.

[THECORBYLOON]

How many folk write "for goodness sake" instead of "for goodness' sake?" 

[Quizmonster]

Strictly-speaking, there should indeed be an apostrophe after the final 's' in "for goodness' sake" and I generally try to remember to add it. However, it is now optional, according to Fowler's 'Modern English Usage', for the simple reason that usage - always the driving force in language development - varies so widely.

[Jackanory]

Click on the link & have a look at this site:

http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/

[THECORBYLOON]

QM maybe I'm stuck in the past but I write 'phone and I've been "picked up" for writing to-day, to-morrow and to-night because of the hyphens.

[IndieSinger]

THECORBYLOON - like with the aliens from The X-Files, you are not alone. I write 'phone. I also write photo'.

[jno]

and one should write p'ram' for perambulator of course. And van meaning in the front should be 'van' (those are apostrophes, not quote marks) because of its derivation from avant-garde. (The sort on the road should be merely 'van, from caravan.) TCL, I trust that you write Oxford-street in the old way.

[flaming]

Thank goodness.  I thought I was the only one who used the apostrophe to denote possession in this way, and to use it to denote letters being omitted. 

The final 's' of a surname is a nice little trap for the unwary, when they require to denote the possession of something by the plural which I have always taken to be written differently from that used in conversation.

e.g.   The Williams' house (written)

         The Williams's house (spoken) 

(or should it be spoken 'Williamses'?  Now I have typed it I'm not sure.)

[acw]

According to Lynn Truss 'phone is just uncool.  But then she's a grammar freak so I'm not entirely sure she's in a good place to decide what's cool and what's not!! :-p

 

Fowler's guide and "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" are great works for helping with this sort of problem bartholomew. 

[MUMPING]

This is THECORBYLOON sorry jno I'm not sure what you meant with the reference to Oxford-Street.

[flaming]

Yes, TCL, I think we should be told!

[jno]

Oxford St used to be hyphenated. Them as still hyphenate to-day should hyphenate Oxford-st, to perpetuate that 18th-century look. Them as fail to do so will be struck off and have to register again under new user names.

I met Lynne Truss once. She's cool, a very funny lady. You may take what she says as gospel. Help yourself to the apostrophes below.

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[MUMPING]

AHHHHHHHHH jno now it's clear ABE is actually Lynne Truss so I suppose ABE should be ABI. That explains why she's not here at the weekend, she's busy writing the next best-seller.

Why have I been so foolish not to notice (or should that be to-notice?)