Saturday, April 2, 2011

Common Writing Errors #2

Apostrophe pin from tiarabuttons on Etsy
It's Saturday! It's April! Yay! Isn't Spring wonderful? Today's post is about possession! No, not like possessing wealth or property, or even being in control of the ball out on the field! It's (it is*)about using apostrophes. 1)Apostrophes can be used to denote the absence of a letter/s in a contraction i.e. can't, won't, I'll. 2) They are also used to indicate plurals of figures, letters or words designated as a plural word like: a Wheel of Fortune statement: "There are three t's in that sentence." But where most of us make the errors in our writing, is when they are used in the possessive case when writing about who or what belongs to whom. "I left the girl's room." Meaning: I left the room of one girl. The room belonging to one girl. "I left the girls room." Incorrect! "The page's focal point was . . . . " Meaning: the focal point belonging to the page seven's layout! "The pages' focal point was . . . " Incorrect! This way it literally means: the focal point of all the pages (plural) was . . . ? did you really mean that all the pages of the magazine had one focal point? Anyway, you get the picture! Tip of the day: There is a notable exception to the rule! Never use an apostrophe with the possessive its. "It's" is actually a contraction meaning 'it is'. *See an example in the first part of this post.

6 comments:

Crystal said...

Apostrophes are tough! Especially It's, its...:-)

myminimocs said...

Ain't grammar a hard thing to figure out. Its real hard when theres' all kind's of do-dads that get's in the way! LOL okay I couldn't help myself, I had to have a little fun with it. Hope you are having a wonderful weekend and these weekly tips are really helpful and appreciated! I'm just a natural smarty pants! ;)

Memories for Life said...

One situation that always confuses me is with last names. Like "The Royer's"...or is it "The Royers". Not meaning possession, but on signs like welcome signs.

Abby / Linda said...

Edi-
Well, I guess using an apostrophe or not would depend on what the sign meant. If it means "This is the Royer's house." Then, use the apostrophe. But if the sign meant: This is the house of the Royers." Then I guess it is the plural form of Royer, not needing an apostrophe. Anyway, that's how I see it! Not guaranteeing that this is correct!! :)

TiLT said...

Apostrophes tend to kick me in the buttocks...therefore I try to use whole words :)

Re said...

Apostrophes is the lonly thing that I abuses, therefour eye agre wif TiLT, and Mocs is phunie.