Appropriately Used Apostrophes

correct grammar…

I am suprised how often, when I spell out my surname, people have no idea of what an apostrophe even is. Usually they shun it off with a dash which really gets my goat.

apostrophe’s rule

you’ll pay for that

Its so hard for an apostrophe to find it’s place in life!

The one that makes my eyes bleed is the so called “grocer’s apostrophe” when they use it ON PURPOSE with plurality with acronyms.

DVD ’s for Sale!

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!

Good stuff.

So, what are your thoughts on won’t?

Wonot not being a proper word an’ all…

Well, willn’t looks damn weird so that’s probably why won’t was developed.

Fair enough! Irregular contractions are stupid, though! I hate ain’t!

Also, love the way people here like appropriately used apostrophes, but have total disregard for capital letters!

won’t = would not

!!

Y’all ain’t got no clue what you’s talkin’ ‘bout.

Then surely it should be wo’n’t, like she’d’ve!

Then in your case, should shan’t not exist, either?

Personally, I’d write she would’ve, not she’d’ve. That is just long and silly! :)

Absolutely! It should be sha’n’t, but people are lazy!

Language evooooolves!

Because people are laaaaaaazy!

Because all those apostrophes look absolutely ridiculous!

I won’t (damnit) argue with that, however words like phthisis, and neighbour also look ridiculous, and yet they remain! And don’t even get me started on the ‘ough’ suffix. I mean, hiccough. Really.

So much for italics.

Italics Schmitalics!

Indeed, neighbor is an awful word. I remember trying to learn how to spell it.. Oh, the pain.

When all’s said an’ done, though, I love this language of ours, and I probably wouldn’t change a thing.

Except ain’t. I really hate ain’t.

Nayber? =/

But if you ask me, our spellings have nothing on our grammar. Seriously, why is the past tense of “go” went? And why is there no future tense of “can?” You have to say “I’ll be able to,” whereas other languages have future tenses of “can.”

oh, the randomness.

Because, inyourpanorama, to go is a defective verb in English; it doesn’t exist in all tenses. Went is a past tense formed from wend (as in ‘to wend your way home’). You can, however, say in Scottish English ‘he gaed yesterday’.

Can, similarly, is defective in English. Others are_shall_, may, must; Wikipedia is encyclopedic on the subject!

Typo: That should read ”...Others are shall, may, must;...”

See here:*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defective_verb

I hope I just did the link right; I can’t access the formatting guide!

I’ve a question; Does Shall not = Shan’t? If so, how did that happen?

You mustn’t ask questions like that!

It’s a contraction of shall not, but the usual rule that the apostrophe(s) indicate(s) missing letters does not apply, by convention.

I can remember being taught this at school.

A similar example is won’t, the contraction of will not

Language is spoken by people who often don’t know the “rules”; hence you can’t expect language to be logical.

God, there’d better be no typos in this!

PS: ‘typo’s’ would be wrong in my usage!

PPs: I once saw a sign outside a shop advertising their apples: Golden Deliciou’s

Wow! Thanks! If I ever have a question about apostrophes or grammar in general, you are my contact!! Here’s one- I was taught that an apostrophe is also used to show posession, as in “Geoffs’ Restaurant” is that correct? I think if you wrote “Geoff’s Restaurant” Wouldn’t that translate into Geoff is Restaurant?? Just something I thought of, I won’t make this a habit!! :)

Ah, you strike neatly into the heart of it…

The apostrophe has two functions in English:

1) it indicates a missing letter or letters

2) it indicates possession. It goes immediately after the possessor or possessors and is usually followed by an s

Hence, speaking of Prince William, Prince Charles is the prince’s father.

But, speaking of William and Harry, Prince Charles is the princes’ father. Note no following s, because the word already ends in that sound and would look silly.

Of a princess: The princess’s daughter.

Of two (or more) princesses: The princesses’ parents.

This is probably the area of English where most mistakes and misunderstandings occur!

Now a sentence such as The princess’s coming is ambiguous by itself; it can mean either The princess is coming (contraction) or The coming of the princess (possession).

The correct version of your example, Geoff’s restaurant cannot be interpreted as anything other than The restaurant of Geoff, because restaurant is not a… I’ll say verbal form, like coming in my example.

Geoffs’ would mean belonging to Geoffs; it could be interpreted as meaning belonging to something called “Geoffs” or maybe belonging to everyone called Geoff.

I, however, would cross it out and correct it to Geoff’s!

Oh, and it’s also used to indicate palatalisation, but that’s only important if you want to write a language like Russian with English letters: the Russian word step’ is pronounced (approximately) step-yeh, not step.

I’ve just re-read my last post very carefully and cannot (or can’t; cannot sounds better, maybe because it sounds more assertive) find any typos.

Enjoy!

Oh me oh my!

I lied inadvertently.

Restaurant, for anyone with French as first language (which doesn’t include me), is of course a “verbal form” in the original French, corresponding to the English refreshing or restoring [of the customers, that is].

I’ve just noticed this and am getting it in before anybody else does!

Restaurant a verb? I find that very interesting! I like reading about word origins, etc. Pretty cool stuff!!

The adjective mobile is essentially the same as movable, meaning able to be moved; however, the word by itself most commonly refers to a wire-less telephone, [I believe that’s a cellphone in the US?]. In this process, it has jumped to become a noun (eg: “Damn! I’ve left my mobile at home}. The same sort of process happenned to the word restaurant.

The origins of words are often shrouded in mystery beyond the powers of a crystal ball, so it’s a pleasure to be able to clear up that mess so quickly.

Since we’re talking apostrophes here, I might as well drop in the lovely word kingfisher; it was originally known as the king’s fisher.

Typo: happened, not happenned

Inyourpanorama: “Seriously, why is the past tense of ‘go’ ‘went’? And why is there no future tense of ‘can’?”

Finrod: “Because, inyourpanorama, to go is a defective verb in English; it doesn’t exist in all tenses… Can, similarly, is defective in English…”

This is why I’m so partial to Esperanto.

“Stop the presses!” Well Finrod, the way I figure it, if you catch your own typo, it doesn’t count as one. :)

Bows deeply

Oh, Bailey… tell us a good legend in Esperanto!

Or tell us some cracking Esperanto wordplay that you know.

In all seriousness, that’s why Tolkien’s Elvish languages are more popular than earnest academic attempts like Esperanto, which has no soul.

Kuragon, homofratog de ciu hautkoloro la tempmirago, kiu dialgis nin damninde nin fine rekunigoa! Kag dume, palpe, blinde, ni venas, iras, eroj en ceno kies finon, ne formas ni nek vidos, Kuragon kaj obstinon.

:P

Dankon -bailey- Mia ŝvebŝipo estas plena da angiloj. Je via sano. ;)

Thank you Wikipedia for my newfound Esperanto “expertise”

P.S. I am a huge Monty Python fan!! ;)

Mi amas Monty Python ankaŭ. :)

“Courage, my brothers of every hue, the time mirage that scattered us unkindly will reunite us! Meanwhile, feebly, blindly, we come and go, links in a chain whose end, we are not and shall not see, take heart, be strong!”

Didn’t take long to track that down…

OK, bailey, well played; but I’m not convinced… it doesn’t have the style of Elen sila lúmenn’omentielvo.

Bah. It may not have any style when you translate into English, but that defeats the point, doesn’t it? :P

To address your criticism more directly: Esperanto can’t be held responsible for not having legends and folkstories any more than it can for not having kings. It’s a language, not an entire culture. That doesn’t mean the language isn’t rich.

Tolkien’s languages may be more popular with certain folks, but I’m 150% certain that has more to do with being attached to a tremendously popular fantasy story than any inherent characteristics of the languages.

Esperanto gets a bad rap in terms of being “artless” just because it’s logical. The quote I threw at you, by the way, was from La Infana Raso by William Auld, for which he was nominated in 1999 for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

I’d like to see elves do that.

Hmmm… A worthy opponent!

I’ve got to go offline now, bailey, but this is just to let you know that I’ve seen your comment and will go ponder it.

I’ll concede that Esperanto is potentially more useful (at least among Indo-European language users) than Quenya or Sindarin.

-But I really have to go now!

We should probably move this debate to our repective comment pages when you return. See you then. :)

er… respective. I can’t type. Let it be known.

Oh, none of us can type, bailey! Don’t worry about it.

Especially on a page dedicated to apostrophes, of all things… hell, I re-read every posting I make here till I’m blue in the face… and I still can’t get it right, as the evidence above shows…

One last thing: Is [human] language logical?

Seen outside a local fruiterer's, many years ago:

"Have you tried our Clementine's?"

I still don't know what they were offering for sale... 

Possibly clementines?  The miniature oranges?  Well, probably not genetically, but as far as I'm concerned they are.  Quite delicious.  And so convenient.

Questionably,

Kittilyn.

I like "ain't." It's like a curse word for people who otherwise don't believe curse words are harmful.