Talking of apostrophes

[lankeela]

How would you write the phrase

below is an article on the puppy's development' or is it puppies development, or puppies' development? There is more than one puppy!

[Prudie]

if it's more than one puppy then it's puppies' development IMO

[joggerjayne]

If there is more than one puppy, then it's ...

... the puppies' development.

[gingejbee]

That makes three of us!

[Eve]

Four :)

[mike11111]

Good Lord, another two people who understand the correct use of the apostrophe. I am reminded of the story of a lecturer at my old university (possibly apocryphal) who awarded a student an A+ for his answer to an exam question, which was acceptable, though not exactly brilliant. When asked to justify his marking at a moderation meeting he said, "Because he is the first student in the past 10 years to use a semi-colon correctly in a sentence".

[joggerjayne]

The semi-colon; a useful, and somewhat neglected, grammatical tool.

[mike11111]

Unfortunately the semi-colon seems to have been largely replaced by the dash, of which I myself am guilty on occasions.

[gingejbee]

O.K. jj - nobody likes a show-off!

[gingejbee]

Oops!

[joggerjayne]

Yes, the hyphen is more popular nowadays.

[joggerjayne]

=0)

[mike11111]

God forbid that I should ever go down the road of grammatical pedantry but I don't think that a dash is quite the same thing as a hyphen, hence my use of the term.

[tearinghair]

I like dashes - when they're used properly, that is! Also quite keen on a line of dots..... I think both give a more friendly - not necessarily informal - tone to a sentence.
Now I'll sit back and wait for you all to pull my punctuation to pieces.
BTW I believe there is an Apostrophe Society.

[mike11111]

My only criticism of your punctuation is that you have typed 5 dots, whereas a line of dots, indicating something left unsaid, should consist of 3, and only 3, dots.

[fredpuli47]

It could be puppy's if the writer was thinking of puppies in general, all puppies of all bitches, rather than just this litter or this group of puppies: 'The puppy's development is exemplified by this litter' ! Then the article could be correctly headed 'The puppy's development'

[tearinghair]

Now that's something I've never heard before, Mike 11111 (or should it be Mike111?). Is that official? Could you point me to a reliable source to verify? (Not that I doubt you, but I'd like to have chapter and verse to show friends and colleagues).

[mike11111]

You are right! A puppy in general as opposed to a particular group. That is why it is often hard to be accurate unless things are seen in context

[tearinghair]

PS Apologies, lankeela, for going off at a tangent in the middle of your thread.

[joggerjayne]

Yes, because then we are talking in the singular.

The "puppy" as a species, or animal group.

And, yes; the line of dots (an "ellipsis?) should consist of three dots.

[mike11111]

Fortunately jj has saved me the bother of looking it up, but if you look up ellipsis in Chambers it will show the correct marking.