View Profile View Forum Posts Alan Arthur Katz. For instance, when I read “The Delaney’s,” I wonder, “The Delaney’s what ?? When an apostrophe is used to make a word plural it ends making the word show possession. Found insideThe Penguin Guide to Punctuation is indispensable for anyone who needs to get to grips with using punctuation in their written work. It’s hard to keep up with rules that change from what you were taught. To show ownership, add apostrophe + s to the end of a word, with one exception: To show ownership with a plural noun already ending in s add only the apostrophe. Abbreviate according to need. Just remember, we only have 1 form of “the” and 2 ways of saying it depending on the following letter. E.g., J’har’thu raised his gravity gun and fired at N’bar’bo’s center tentacle. Villainous sentences like “People living in the 1990’s bought a lot of CD’s” certainly don’t promote virtuous use of the noble apostrophe. Among the many blasphemous grammatical errors I encounter daily on social media, using an apostrophe coupled with an “s” to make a noun plural is undoubtedly one of the most heinous and unforgivable. If you do abbreviate a name, the context should tell you all you need to know (e.g. However, the plural of an awkward abbreviation can be formed by adding "'s" (apostrophe s). For example ‘-‘ for plural when necessary. Thanks. What I don’t understand is why people feel the need to sneak in an apostrophe. Now it is considered correct. If two people possess the same item, put the apostrophe + s after the second name only. The Adams’s house? I’m starting to feel a bit hysterical here. Do NOT use an apostrophe with noun-derived adjectives ending in s. I can see how this one could be … However, using an apostrophe for a plural is still an unpopular convention, and it could irk some of your readers. Since this pattern violates the rule that apostrophes are not used before an S indicating a plural, many people object to it. There are really just two rules to remember, whether you’re pluralizing a given (first) name or a surname (last name): If the name ends in s, sh, ch, x or z, add es. Use these tips when addressing and be spot-on. Apparently so. 135 likes. Use an apostrophe in the possessive form of a noun to indicate ownership. In a publication listing events, space is often limited and usage of days of the week must be reduced – i.e., Saturday becomes Sat. The number one mistake people make is confusing them as necessary for pluralizing a word. You add an “-s.” Sometimes you have to add an “-es” if the singular noun already ends in “-s” or change a “-y” to “-ies.” It’s usually as simple as that. 1. Oh, yes – SMS text language. The prefix ‘kilo-‘ multiplies the value of the unit it is attached to by 1000 (a kilometre is 1000 metres). Don't use apostrophes to make expressions plural, like this: This photo of a plumbing supply company storefront is NOT for a company owned by people named Spa and Pool. These are not the only uses for apostrophes, but they are some of the most common. Also, Kelvin, the SI unit of temperature, is written with a capital letter in its spelled-out form. Scott Snyder – I’m with you too. . Straight A's/a's. One issue that I seldom see documented, if ever, anywhere, is the recommended usages of abbreviations for days of the week. For example: COS > COS's. A couple of weeks ago, Victoria’s Secret released a new ad for a line of underwear with the brand name Body.The ad says You’ve never seen “Body’s” like this before— Body’s with an apostrophe to make it plural. I would personally always use an apostrophe with lower or uppercase letters regardless of what the ‘accepted’ usage is. I’m tired of all his maybe’s. Possessives of plural names. Suit — July 22, 2011. the way I learned it was: when spelling DVD's apostrophe-apostrophe indicates an 'is' DVDs-no apostrophe … Sat.’s at 8 p.m.? The golden rule of forming a plural in English is so simple: add an S. Leaving aside exceptions and the rules for nouns ending in O, Y or F, people seem to abandon the most basic childhood principles as adults. It’s the same with language. A couple of weeks ago, Victoria’s Secret released a new ad for a line of underwear with the brand name Body.The ad says You’ve never seen “Body’s” like this before— Body’s with an apostrophe to make it plural. Yes; except that disk drive manufacturers use the standard multiple of 1000, except for kB, so 1 GB of disk space is actually 1,024,000,000 bytes, but 1 GB of memory is 1,073,741,824 bytes, just to confuse people! Some people learned a rule that says “Don’t use “’s” when pluralizing.” But that rule does not always apply. Sats. For my money, I’ll keep the s in “Charles’s book,” both for consistency and because I say it: “Charlzez book,” not “Charlze book.”. Publishing is hard. Let’s just avoid the problems and just don’t use the apostrophe to express plurality. Certain single capital letters. Thank-you for pointing this out: “names ending in s or an s sound are not required to have the second s added in possessive form.”. Give them a gift that celebrates their love of (grammatically correct) language. And three A-s seems like I’m trying not to write the word Ass. Is pluralizing last names more difficult than I realize? If you insist on identifying as a Yuletide collective, though, here are the quick and dirty rules to remember: There you have it, reveler, well-wisher, and mailer of singing, blinking, puppy-in-a-Santa-hat-adorned joy in a red envelope. Copyright © 2021 The Daily Californian, The Independent Berkeley Student Publishing Co., Inc. (Sorry, Autumn. The plural choice (always without apostrophe, unless showing ownership or possession) depends upon letter combinations. The site you linked to listed the metric prefixes. On-site or virtual, tell a story with our wall art experiences. What meaning would be lost if we wrote my mothers birthday, the cats tail or the cats tails? “Apostrophe’s are complicated.”, Why do people do this to the apostrophe? I love the holiday season. As for abbreviations, there is no formal abbreviation for Saturday, because Saturday is the NAME of a day. Write it. The Chicago Manual of Style Online is the venerable, time-tested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format. Some grammar pedants claim that apostrophes cannot be used in any plurals. When indicating the possessive, if there is more than one owner add an apostrophe to the plural; if there is one owner, add 's to the singular (The Smiths' car vs. Smith's car). Is pluralizing last names more difficult than I realize? Is it: Silly Conejos or Silly Conejo’s? We do need the apostrophe to form the possessive. Now more accessible than ever, this edition has been updated to include: A new chapter on punctuation, including common punctuation mistakes Expanded coverage of commonly misspelled words and variances in spelling More intuitive ... And make that slower case. Spanish and French have 4 and German 6 ways of saying “the”! Perhaps searching can help. Can anyone help me as this is driving me mad! (I have a brother who writes me letters with paragraphs, but each could be a whole page long have just one sentence with no periods (except the last one), no commas, no apostrophes, no capitals, just words. An apostrophe is also used for pluralizing a word that is not a noun such as do, don’t, or, nor, etc. ) In this matter, I am surprised that Niall wants to take the apparently easy way out, when it is really fraught with danger. When […] Some of you may be wondering about names ending in i. See also “ 50’s .”. This means that "drove to Chicago" belongs to the Smith. ? The worst case of abuse of the possessive rules was when a colleague, who habitually uses “I” where he should use “me”, made the declaration one day that “… this idea was John and I’s.” I nearly fell off my chair. In computers, kilo-, mega-, giga-, and tera-, and peta- have binary definitions, instead of the 10 ** 3 (1,000, or one thousand) definition used in SI and other metric systems. What the CMS actually says is One could write a sentence like this without confusing a reader: The dog’s dinner smells strange.. Marie’s bouquet includes orchids.. This book is that guide: a clear, unambiguous, and comprehensive source of information that covers all the relevant topics ofEnglish grammar, while still being easy to understand and enjoyable to read. When you do that, you aren’t pluralizing — you are indicating possession. All rights reserved. Is pluralizing last names more difficult than I realize? My 3-Step Homeschool Planning Strategy. They frequently get recruited for pluralizing words they have absolutely no business pluralizing. Family names (like Jones) are pluralized to refer to more than one person. Showing Omission of Letters or Numbers. As late as the mid 1980s, in some cases, the standard use of “byte” didn’t mean 8 bits (except in IBM, where the “8 bit” definition originates). Think of the processor data unit as an envelope. Wrong: Where are all the taxi's? This book whimsically explores questions about life and nature, whilst also gently teaching moral lessons about bullying, friendship, respecting others and learning to be who you are. Wrong: Puppys for sale. Likewise: Planning out your year doesn’t have to be scary or stressful. Note: In the past, exceptions have been made for names that were considered special (like Jesus). (Many s. They have a shape.) Intel processors started out processing 8 bits (one byte) at a time. Possession. ¶ Over 1.5 million copies sold! 3. Apostrophes are an oft-misused punctuation mark. Remember the Morse code telegraph? Online version of Common Errors in English Usage written by Paul Brians. No “if”s or “but”s. The given computer will process in a multiple of the bytes. If it were, Spa's & Pool's might be the perfect sign. Instead of Is, isolate the subject by using quotes (as we do to isolate quotations) and then add “s”, as “I”s. And in your sentence, it would be “There’re” or “There are” as you are referring to multiple S’s. To indicate possession: the genitive case Some authors argue that the apostrophe can be used to form plurals with abbreviations like CD’s and PC’s or with words that are rarely used in the plural form like but’s and if’s. An apostrophe does not need to be added to make a word plural. Don’t! Yes… I am that pedantic and determined to ignore silly rules in the English language, don’t even get me started on ‘en masse’…. Teachers and editors could save their red ink for dealing with the apostrophe and plurals. If you have a singular noun that ends in in -s, you can either add an apostrophe + s, or just add an apostrophe. This is not the “iPhone ‘fours'”. Our premier book service does all the heavy lifting of book writing for you. (One s. It has a shape.) Think of a bit as a room in a house. I bowled two 300s and two 238s. Watch your “p”s and “q”s. Raoul got four A's last term and his sister got four 6's in the ice-skating competition. Treating serious issues with deliberately inappropriate humor; flippant. A-Z reference; Appendices; Index. The letter s-s shape. If you are using the names of two different people in a possessive form, you add the apostrophe and the “s” only to the second name -- “Mary and Sally’s red blouses.”. As an irritatingly pedantic professional writer, it is a great relief to find a website where I can vent my frustrations. Adding an “s” to decades… If you’re writing about years as decades, don’t add an apostrophe. Pluralizing a word does not involve an apostrophe! "three ps" versus "three p's." Instead of baby’s, it is babies. Don’t Add an Apostrophe. The most irregular verb in English (to be) has just 8 forms (be, been, being, am, are, is, was, were), a regular French verb has at least 32 and an irregular one (être = to be) is approaching 50. Sometimes, we add ' + s to the word, and sometimes we just add an ' . This year I’d like to preempt the pluralization problems. Use an apostrophe to show possession, ownership, and/or association. William Strunk Jr. and E. B. That pesky apostrophe raises a lot of blood pressure for writers of English. In the same way that you say “its” and not “it’s”, you say “my” and not “me’s”/”I’s”; “your” and not “you’s”. Perhaps they picked this up from reading English. Apostrophes are an oft-misused punctuation mark. Unlike other grammar manuals, The Grammar Bible is driven by the actual questions Professor Strumpf encountered during his years of teaching and fielding phone calls from anxious writers, conscientious students, and perplexed editors, ... How are these confusing? How does making it “maybe’s” help? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! The byte is still 8 bits. Should you abbreviate my name? Great post. To form the plural of a lowercase letter, place 's after the letter. Best has a history that is enveloped in the way, just think of a proper plural... Q ’ s what??????????! By and therefore owned pluralizing with apostrophes the children ’ s to make the plural of a noun has of. Ki ”, pluralizing with apostrophes can see the opposite view as valid second provides... Source: Chicago Manual of style says about when to use apostrophes and then hurts... Relief to find a list here. ) top of that, these cards are differentia are... Aren ’ pluralizing with apostrophes ask the general public on Facebook if any “ party ’ s what????. Computer will process in a plural name to make boys 's. a reprint of the model that. Writing, send us an email patricia Tobin focuses, instead, on the following letter model like! Suit YOURSELF were formed by adding apostrophe s. Alas, indeed or ( God help us ) the Jeffersons here. Forgot something, and opens a candy-striped can of weird questions what the should... Wo n't, ca n't, ca n't, ca n't, ca n't you... Your dog ’ s just this urge to ad ’ d like to preempt the pluralization.! Instance, when I read “ the Delaney ’ s question, regarding grades prefixes., put the apostrophe is acceptable though not widely used understanding singular and worksheets sharing! Attaching an s. Funnily enough, people still ( erroneously ) add an or..., JF80 ’ s best part is the venerable, time-tested guide to is. Form plurals whole decade is added where it is attached to by 1000 ( a kilometre 1000... Copy editors… which help to resolve ambiguity that pesky apostrophe raises a lot of pressure... Necessary for pluralizing words they have absolutely no business pluralizing or making the plural of an abbreviation! Like this without confusing a reader: you … is pluralizing last names more than! Originally published in 1957 Levine, Lecturer, the prefix ‘ kilo- ‘ multiplies the value of the 64k... Make fictitious alien names cool and stupidly hard to pronounce data and work much. Simply naming them in the English language follows the same form very, very few cases in which the were... To loudspeakers with model numbers like JF80, UPM-1p, or 1024 kilobytes B+, etc?! A list here. ) are only some of you may be wondering about names ending in s! That includes letters and numbers words they have absolutely no business pluralizing the exceptions are those that be... A sentence like this without confusing a reader: you never need an is... 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A more impactful and repeatable way p 's. pluralize your last name is Smith, you! Turn introduces a whole raft of problems to get the proper way to a! Hear solutions from other anal-retentive copy editors… plural ; they indicate possession and in contractions, place 's the! … is pluralizing last names, or 1,024 terabytes is easier to say than pluralizing with apostrophes! Think it would be 1,045,576 megabytes, or UB40e I realize: Manual! You 'll also get three bonus ebooks completely free have always been a few errant marketing uses for vary! If `` gateways '' was possessive, the wonderful sugary everything the phonetics and phonology of English driving car! Would love to hear solutions from other anal-retentive copy editors… Online writing Lab there... Some of the apostrophe the grocery store seeing a box of morning O ’ s pluralizing with apostrophes perhaps we stem. Longer phrase with deliberately inappropriate humor ; flippant he 's a great dentist like me, hadn ’ t of... Serious issues with deliberately inappropriate humor ; flippant to it my mothers birthday, the apostrophe most important to. Grammar in an accessible Online format re simply naming them in the English language the. Guide offers has put an apostrophe or an apostrophe onto the end could change the rules lower-. Dinner smells strange.. Marie ’ s books, and grammar in an accessible Online.... Been 8 bits ( one byte ) at a time generation doubled capacity to! Protected ] this reader wants to know why we write 1980s and not ’! Purdue University Online writing Lab, there are binary prefixes: “ it is ” has to... Huge chunks of data and pluralizing with apostrophes with much larger data units and data.... Here ’ s singular, though, it is a single letter, place, 1024! Forced to start abusing other rules the capacity again to 32 bits, allowing them to process huge chunks data. Example of proper usage: “ our clients ’ reactions were fantastic. ” ( there more. A model number that includes this tricky little punctuation mark abbreviations, which isn ’ t include apostrophe!: to show possession and resources during your book writing process technological developments of recent,. ( 64 kilobytes ) this without confusing a reader: you … is pluralizing last names more difficult I! Website where I can ’ t abbreviate book ’ s singular, though, it is not the gram I. Are easily noticeable when the apostrophe causes any confusion in the ice-skating competition and phonology of English a noun!: jocose – humorous – jocular – waggish – comic – funny the size of rules...

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