Apostrophes...correct usage?
One of my play-testers for the Wicker Woman has commented that I should be omitting apostrophes when using a posessive term, ie " eating it's sausages". I deleted them with a doubt in my heart; I'm positive an apostrophe shoud be used in such an occasion (and also after proper nouns). Who's right?
Post edited by The Lone Magpie on
Comments
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
But im sure there is more to it than that.
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/apostrophe?rskey=6IvOFS&result=1#m_en_gb0034690
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe#General_principles_for_the_possessive_apostrophe
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/using-apostrophes-to-show-possession.html
From the wikipedia article above:
"No apostrophe is used in the following possessive pronouns and adjectives: yours, his, hers, ours, its, theirs, and whose. (Many people use it's for the possessive of it, but authorities are unanimous that it's can be only a contraction of it is or it has.) All other possessive pronouns not ending in s do take an apostrophe: one's; everyone's; somebody's, nobody else's, etc"
HTH.
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
"It's raining outside" (It is raining outside).
"The dog is eating its breakfast" - here, "its" isn't a contraction of other words, so there's no apostrophe.
If a word is a plural ending in s, you just use the apostrophe and do not put an additional s afterwards.
For proper nouns you can either do the same or put the s on. It doesn't really matter as long as you're consistent, although modern usage tends towards the latter.
The other thing to watch out for is plurals that aren't possessive. They shouldn't use an apostrophe at all.
Yep. That's (i.e. that is) the right idea.
It's is "it is".
The best way to think of it is like this. If you're writing something, and want to stick an apostrophe in, think "does 'it is' make sense here?"
For instance, if you write "The dog scratched it's ear", expand the contraction when you read it back. You'll read back "The dog scratched it is ear", which doesn't make sense. So you get rid of the apostrophe.
Write games in C using Z88DK and SP1
Yes. They basically stopped teaching grammar at all about 25 years ago. I think I must have been one of the last lucky few.
Yes it's its indeed;)
Yeah, that's right! It always confuses me too...
Hehe...My English teacher would go mad if she saw my over use of .......s!
You forgot to add a period at the end of your sentence. :p
I never get confused with "it's" and "its", but I still get briefly confused when I need to use it together with numbers. That's one of the reasons I now say "I miss the eighties". ;-)
The wrong use of apostrophes is not as hard on the eyes as the wrong use of the words "they're", "there" and "their". :)