[Noisebridge-discuss] Grammar question regarding possessive apostrophe

[jim]

http://www.reddit.com/comments/65hz7/the_apostrophe_key_does_not_mean_holy_shit_here 

"holy shit, here comes an 's'!" 

The possessive apostrophe is the vestigial remnant of a full case ending
which was written and pronounced as a separate syllable in Old and
Middle English. So it’s really a contraction, just like any other
apostrophe—but the uncontracted form has disappeared from the language.


On Sun, 2010-02-07 at 15:30 -0800, Rachel McConnell wrote:
> The apostrophe for possessives applies to everything except pronouns.
> The three possessive pronouns are his, hers, and its.  They are the only
> possessives that don't take an apostrophe.  Every other possessive does,
> even plurals, although in the case of add-s plurals the apostrophe goes
> after the final s ("all Noisebridge members' laptops" vs. "a Noisebridge
> member's laptop").
> 
> "Strong enough to take a person's weight" is correct.
> 
> Other apostrophe rules are:
> 
> * contractions take an apostrophe at the point where the missing letters
> are missing.  I can't think of an example now, but you often see cases
> where the apostrophe is just stuck on there somewhere, in front or in
> back.  You can actually contract just about anything correctly; for
> example Jim often uses tho't for thought, and the apostrophe replaces
> the ugh so this is fine, if idiosyncratic, usage.
> 
> * plurals MAY take an apostrophe if they are pluralizations of acronyms,
> but this isn't required.  Non-acronym plurals NEVER take an apostrophe.
>  Basically you can do pluralization of acronyms whichever way you want,
> although inconsistency (as in my examples) looks weird.  Examples: ATMs,
> LED's, NDAs, EULA's.
> 
> * you can use apostrophes as a substitute for double quotes, although
> they're usually called single quotes in this case.  Many languages use
> single quotes preferably to double quotes.  There are lots of variants
> of quoting though.
> 
> Rachel "Grammar Nazi" McConnell
> 
> Don French wrote:
> > Well, its also follows the pattern of his and hers, which is how I
> > always remember it -- masculine, feminine, and neuter all agree in form.
> > 
> > -- Don
> > 
> > 
> > On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 1:13 PM, Will Sargent <will.sargent at gmail.com
> > <mailto:will.sargent at gmail.com>> wrote:
> > 
> >     It should be the latter.  Weight "belongs to" a person.
> > 
> >     "its" is the exception only because "it's" is a contraction of "it
> >     is", and is more frequently used.
> > 
> >     UK has the same rules as US in this -- at least, at the schools I
> >     went to.
> > 
> >     Will.
> > 
> > 
> >     On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 1:08 PM, Michael Shiloh
> >     <michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com <mailto:michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com>>
> >     wrote:
> > 
> >         Normally the apostrophe is used to indicate possessive, but I
> >         know there
> >         are many exceptions, such as "its", most of which I don't
> >         understand.
> > 
> >         Ran across this in an otherwise excellently written document,
> >         which made
> >         me wonder if it's an exception:
> > 
> > 
> >                "Strong enough to take a persons weight.
> > 
> >         or should it be
> > 
> >                "Strong enough to take a person's weight.
> > 
> >         What rule do you follow?
> > 
> >         Would this be different in the UK?
> > 
> >         Thanks
> >         M
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> > 
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