Philosophy of Apostrophe: The Correct UsageJune 9th, 2009 [image: apostrophe3]You have the pundits’ permission To use apostrophe in omission In possessives you are free to use In plurals you are free to choose
First, let us a few letters omit Therefore a few words in size, limit In silent letters ov’r is a substitute In contractions it’s in multitudes And if you have shampoo’d your hair Do let the ‘e’ disappear You are correct if you omit the numeral That’s how I write Indira’s ’84 funeral Let’s now take the possessive case Of words that don’t end with an ‘s’ If George’s death brought in the coroner Men’s room was just round the corner In names too give not the ‘s’ a miss Charles’ it isn’t, Charles’s it is But classical names are exceptions As Achilles’ heel and Jesus’ crucifixion In some institution and in some place -Take Barclays Bank and Toms river case- We drop the mark of apostrophe here That is because of usage there Yet, Woolworth’s Store is another way But not for long, that I can say For goodness’ sake where is the ‘s’? That, my friend, is anyone’s guess His, hers, its, theirs and ours All dropped the mark, as has yours Possessive pronouns are a different lot Compound nouns are another lot Duke of Edinburgh’s gaffe was the worst this summer What he did before Genco Olive Oil’s customer And if you had a joint company The last name will hold the possessive key For if Vinnie and Sonny had some buttonmen Would be Vinnie and Sonny’s buttonmen then McDonald’s is already in possessive Adding an ‘s’ would be surely regressive So let’s do it with a prepositional phrase Quarter pounders at McDonald’s is a nice little phrase Writing 1980’s, CPA’s isn’t quite right Let the end of 2000s be very bright Finally, let’s drop the mark from p’s and q’s And ask about ‘em in the MCQs -Adapted from ‘Prescriptivist’s Corner: The Catastrophe of Apostrophe’ by Dave Wilton --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "English Learner's Cafe" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/english_learners?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
