Lesson the first
Apostrophes aren't used to create pluralizations.
Typically, you create a plural by adding an 's' to the end of the word. No apostrophes necessary.
Apostrophes are used to indicate posession. That which belongs to me; Jen's cats. Notice? No apostrophe on 'cats.'
If I wanted to indicate the ball that belongs to the cat, I would say, "the cat's ball." Posession.
If I wanted to indicate the food dishes that belong to both cats, I would say, "The cats' food dishes." 'Cause I like to use that one to screw with people. You could also say, "The cats's food dishes," but it's unnecessary. Not incorrect, though.
posted by Jen @ 11:40 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
now you can post great pictures... I like the free verse style of blogs... I have intense anger towards those who feel 'blogs' are a waste of time or non-professional... blogs are the core of creative thinking... I can easily write for Reuters or even the Wall Street Journal(well was asked to be junior editor) but didn't do well on interview... anyways, good luck with this blog, you can even post audio too.
Are you going to attack the misuse of "your" and "you're" ? Not to mention the dreadful online habit of saying "U R". Ugh. It's a language people, use it.
...but I can already post pictures or audio with my main blog. It's all through blogger, I just have a more fun URL for my main two sites.
*confused*
As I understand it with plural possessives - and I may well be wrong on this - "cats's food" would be correct American English (according to Strunk) and "cats' food" correct British English (according to Fowler). As you say, both are right, but I'm seeing much greater use of the American usage these days, even here in Blighty.
But what about unnecessary over-punctuation? Multiple exclamation marks, for example!!!
Oh, rest assured, there are more to come. :)
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