Apostrophes with Words Ending in s. While normal people wonder about apostrophes in general, believe it or not, word nerds have heated arguments over whether to use an additional s with singular possession.. Rule 1: Many common nouns end in the letter s (lens, cactus, bus, etc. Modern French orthography has restored the spelling une heure. 's railway station"; "Awaye! Punctuation has a very important function for the written language as it helps to build up a clear structure for a better clarification and comprehension of the text. "the fox's fur") were usually spelled as today with a final "s". But in real life, we often use them in everyday speech. Don’t mix up the contraction with the possessive form of a pronoun: It’s the day he’ll see t… Compose'> or [37], The English possessive of French nouns ending in a silent s, x, or z is addressed by various style guides. In English, it is used for three purposes:[1], The word apostrophe comes ultimately from Greek ἡ ἀπόστροφος [προσῳδία] (hē apóstrophos [prosōidía], '[the accent of] turning away or elision'), through Latin and French. Simply changing the name of the genitive does not change or eliminate any of its multiple functions. "[95] In his book American Speech, linguist Steven Byington stated of the apostrophe that "the language would be none the worse for its abolition". [85] Hyperforeignism has been formalised in some pseudo-anglicisms. It’s not a backwards apostrophe, it’s reverse single quotation mark. [note 3] A third alternative is a construction of the form "Jack's children and Jill's", which is always distributive, i.e. When the noun is a normal plural, with an added s, no extra s is added in the possessive; so the neighbours' garden (there is more than one neighbour owning the garden) is standard rather than the neighbours's garden. Direct address: Thanks for all your help, John. It must not be used for plurals or most of the possessive forms. Sometimes the apostrophe is omitted in the names of clubs, societies, and other organizations, even though the standard principles seem to require it: Country Women's Association, but International Aviation Womens Association;[51] Magistrates' Court of Victoria,[52] but Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union. Contexts . If a singular noun does end in S, you should add an apostrophe and an S to make the word possessive. That is, they should not have an apostrophe followed by an “s.” An apostrophe and an “s” should only be added to nouns to show appropriate possession. In many languages, including JavaScript, ECMAScript, and Python, either the apostrophe or the double quote may be used, allowing string literals to contain the other character (but not to contain both without using an escape character), e.g. UK supermarket chain Tesco omits the mark where standard practice would require it. People use contractions in both speaking and writing. How many mongo seeds are equal to 3.50 mole of mongo seeds? [61] On the other hand, some style manuals and critics suggest that apostrophes should never be used for plurals, even for lower case letters. The same use of apostrophe before noun plural -s forms is sometimes made by non-native speakers of English. Need synonyms for apostrophes? George Bernard Shaw called them "uncouth bacilli", referring to the apostrophe-like shape of many bacteria. Such words are called contractions. An apostrophe is commonly used to indicate omitted characters, normally letters: The apostrophe may be used for clarity with the plurals of single letters as in, Use of the apostrophe may be recommended only for lowercase letters. The cases where the apostrophe is not an abbreviation for, CMOS, 7.25: "If plural compounds pose problems, opt for. Plural for a remark or passage, especially in a play that is intended to be heard only by the audience. not joint possession).[16]. However, debate has been going on regarding the punctuation of St James' Park (Newcastle) for some time, unlike St James's Park (London) which is the less contentious version. [83], The term is believed to have been coined in the middle of the 20th century by a teacher of languages working in Liverpool, at a time when such mistakes were common in the handwritten signs and advertisements of greengrocers (e. g., Apple's 1/- a pound, Orange's 1/6d a pound). Barclays is no longer associated with the family name. An apostrophe substitutes the missing letters and spaces in a contraction. Failure to observe standard use of the apostrophe is widespread and frequently criticised as incorrect,[75][76] often generating heated debate. How to type E apostrophe in Word. Ctrl+⇧ Shift+U2019↵ Enter[116]. For example, in the expressions "the school's headmaster", "the men's department", and "tomorrow's weather", the school does not own/possess the headmaster, men don't own/possess the department, and tomorrow does not/will not own the weather. ' is officially supported in HTML since HTML 5. What is the New York Times crossword puzzle 0119? [5] It was introduced into English in the 16th century in imitation of French practice. The practice, once common and acceptable (see Historical development), comes from the identical sound of the plural and possessive forms of most English nouns. [98] The Apostrophe Protection Society, founded by retired journalist John Richards in 2001, was brought to a full stop in 2019, Richards (then aged 96) accepting that "the ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won!".[99]. It is used to open a quoted section. The Eriksens went to Vietnam last summer. The resulting word is shorter and faster to say, with only one syllable (sound) instead […] The Microsoft Windows code page CP1252 (sometimes incorrectly called ANSI or ISO-Latin) contains the typographic apostrophe at 0x92. Lewis Carroll made greater use of apostrophes, and frequently used sha'n't, with an apostrophe in place of the elided ll as well as the more usual o. In transliterated foreign words, an apostrophe may be used to separate letters or syllables that otherwise would likely be interpreted incorrectly. Strings delimited with apostrophes are often called single quoted. [15] Where a construction like "Jack's and your dogs" is used, the interpretation is usually "segregatory" (i.e. In February 2007 Arkansas historian Parker Westbrook successfully petitioned State Representative Steve Harrelson to settle once and for all that the correct possessive should not be. Formally, the symbol used to represent a foot of length, depth, or height, is ′ (prime) and that for the inch is ″ (double prime). 's Paulette Whitten recorded Bob Wilson's story";[20] Washington, D.C.'s museums[21] (assuming that the prevailing style requires full stops in D.C.). See Smart quotes for examples. What is the mission statement for the African sandals business? Over the years, the use of apostrophes has been criticised. In these languages a character is a different object than a one-letter string. [8], From the 16th century, following French practice, the apostrophe was used when a vowel letter was omitted either because of incidental elision (I'm for I am) or because the letter no longer represented a sound (lov'd for loved). This often produces so-called "Dunglish" errors when carried over into English. Similar examples of notable names ending in an s that are often given a possessive apostrophe with no additional s include Dickens and Williams. The apostrophe was first used by Pietro Bembo in his edition of De Aetna (1496). Who is the longest reigning WWE Champion of all time? Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, points out that before the 19th century it was standard orthography to use the apostrophe to form a plural of a foreign-sounding word that ended in a vowel (e. g., banana's, folio's, logo's, quarto's, pasta's, ouzo's) to clarify pronunciation. Some languages and transliteration systems use the apostrophe to mark the presence, or the lack of, palatalization: Some languages use the apostrophe to separate the root of a word and its affixes, especially if the root is foreign and unassimilated. We use an apostrophe to merge multiple words to create a contraction. Both simplifications carried over to computer keyboards and the ASCII character set. Let's take a look at some examples. This case was called the genitive until the 18th century and (like the genitive case in other languages) in fact expresses much more than possession. If you have a name that ends in "s," or if you will observe home-made signs selling tomatoes or chili-and-beans, you will quickly note what can be done with a possessive apostrophe in reckless hands. Place names in the United States do not use the possessive apostrophe on federal maps and signs. He did, however, allow I'm and it's. [15], When a coordinate possessive construction has two personal pronouns, the normal possessive inflection is used, and there is no apostrophe (e.g. Plural for the shortening of a word or phrase, using an apostrophe. In many languages, especially European languages, the apostrophe is used to indicate the elision of one or more sounds, as in English. The opening single quotation mark ‘, incorrect in this context, is also sometimes seen due to software that converts typewriter apostrophes into curly opening single quotes at the beginning of a line or when preceded by a space. Compound nouns have their singular possessives formed with an apostrophe and an added s, in accordance with the rules given above: the Attorney-General's husband; the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports's prerogative; this Minister for Justice's intervention; her father-in-law's new wife. The issue of the use of the apostrophe arises when the coordinate construction includes a noun (phrase) and a pronoun. [81], UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's letter to EU President Donald Tusk of 19 October 2019 regarding a Brexit extension contained a well-publicised and ridiculed[82] grocer's apostrophe. For example, one hour's respite means a respite of one hour (exactly as the cat's whiskers means the whiskers of the cat). In German an apostrophe is used almost exclusively to indicate omitted letters. Contractions are commonly used in speech (or written dialogue), informal forms of writing, and where space is at a premium, such as in advertising. The 1800s saw many important scientific discoveries. [44] On the state level, the federal policy is not always followed: Vermont's official state website has a page on Camel's Hump State Forest. Remember how we said contractions are made of two words that have been shortened? We search a large scrabble dictionary for scrabble words starting with apostrophes - we take the letter or word you enter, and generate all words starting with Apostrophes. Certain letters have been omitted and replaced by apostrophes. [2][3], The closing single quotation mark U+2019 (’) is preferred by Unicode when the character is to represent an apostrophe, though the typewriter apostrophe U+0027 (') is more commonly used.[4]. Examples. The apostrophe in the name of rock band The La's is often thought to be misused, but in fact it marks omission of the letter d. The name comes from the Scouse slang for lads. When did marathon bars change their name to snickers? he'll (he will) to name a few. Examples include Oxford University Press, the Modern Language Association, the BBC and The Economist. Some business names may inadvertently spell a different name if the name with an s at the end is also a name, such as Parson. In this case, the inflection of only the last item may sometimes be, at least marginally, acceptable ("you and your spouse's bank account"). [note 8] As the case of womens shows, it is not possible to analyze these forms simply as non-possessive plurals, since women is the only correct plural form of woman. [78] A 2008 survey found that nearly half of the UK adults polled were unable to use the apostrophe correctly. (, Those things over there are my husbands. All other possessive pronouns ending in s do take an apostrophe: one's; everyone's; somebody's, nobody else's, etc. The shape of the apostrophe originated in manuscript writing, as a point with a downwards tail curving clockwise. Several languages and transliteration systems use the apostrophe or some similar mark to indicate a glottal stop, sometimes considering it a letter of the alphabet: The apostrophe represents sounds resembling the glottal stop in the Turkic languages and in some romanizations of Semitic languages, including Arabic and Hebrew. For example. A small activist group called the Apostrophe Protection Society[53] has campaigned for large retailers such as Harrods, Currys, and Selfridges to reinstate their missing punctuation. So an apostrophe followed by s was often used to mark a plural, especially when the noun was a loan word (and especially a word ending in a, as in the two comma's). Sounds vaguely Portuguese :^D . It can also sometimes be used to pluralize irregular nouns, such as single letters, abbreviations, and single-digit numbers. [115] Some earlier non-Microsoft browsers would display a '?' An apostrophe can be used to replace a letter or letters (e.g., isn't, can't). According to this older system, possessives of names ending in "-x" or "-xe" were usually spelled without a final "s" even when an /s/ or /z/ was pronounced at the end (e.g. In that case, the letter 'ayn (Arabic ع and Hebrew ע) is correspondingly transliterated with the opening single quotation mark. Signs in Tesco advertise (among other items) "mens magazines", "girls toys", "kids books" and "womens shoes". What is the benefit of analyzing the market and alternative industries before individual securities? Similarly, the prime symbol is the formal representation of a minute of arc (1/60 of a degree in geometry and geomatics), and double prime represents a second of arc (for example, 17°54'32" represents 17 degrees 54 minutes and 32 seconds). In the Lisp family of programming languages, an apostrophe is shorthand for the quote operator. [22][note 6]. "The apostrophe has been dropped from most Australian place-names and street names: Spelled both with and without the apostrophe at, A search on www.multimpap.com for "St Johns Lane" in the UK, with or without apostrophe, finds the apostrophe omitted in 5 instances out of 25, Daniel Bunčić (Bonn), "The apostrophe: A neglected and misunderstood reading aid" at the, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping, Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, "The Unicode® Standard: Writing Systems and Punctuation § Apostrophes", US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, The American Heritage Book of English Usage. Adrian Room, in his English Journal article "Axing the Apostrophe", argued that apostrophes are unnecessary, and context will resolve any ambiguity. Add an apostrophe and the letter s to make the singular noun (woman) possessive (woman's). Many earlier (pre-1985) computer displays and printers rendered the ASCII apostrophe as a typographic apostrophe, and rendered the grave accent ` ('back tick',0x60, 96) as a matching left single quotation mark. We explain how it should be used and give examples of when NOT to use an apostrophe in your writing. … Maybe you know to write I met the Smiths, I drove Brenda Smith’s Ferrari, and I visited the Smiths’ house.But what if the name is Sanchez or Church or Williams?. Don't (do not), I'm (I am), aren't (are not), and Many respected authorities recommend that practically all singular nouns, including those ending with a sibilant sound, have possessive forms with an extra s after the apostrophe so that the spelling reflects the underlying pronunciation. In many languages, especially European languages, the apostrophe is used to indicate the elision of one or more sounds, as in English. Its use for indicating plural "possessive" forms was not standard before the middle of the 19th century. Apostrophes are tiny punctuation marks but are majorly misused every single day. Unicode defines three apostrophe characters:[110]. follow the same rules as singular nouns: e.g., ", If the plural is not one that is formed by adding, A few English nouns have plurals that are not spelled with a final, In such examples, the plurals are formed with an. and a Japanese dance group called Super Monkey's. [42][43] Some municipalities, originally incorporated using the apostrophe, have dropped it in accordance with this policy; Taylors Falls in Minnesota, for example, was originally incorporated as "Taylor's Falls". According to the apostrophe rules, there are specific words which can be contracted; for example, shouldn’t, he’s, let’s, wouldn’t, and so on. This form was inherited by the typographic apostrophe, ’, also known as the typeset apostrophe (or, informally, the curly apostrophe). Both sets also used this code point for a closing single quote. This can still be seen in many documents prepared at that time, and is still used in the TeX typesetting system to create typographic quotes. This was regarded as representing the Old English genitive singular inflection -es. Others prefer to add 's: for convenience's sake. In the words of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage:[9]. The solution was to use an apostrophe after the plural s (as in girls' dresses). "[87], The United States Board on Geographic Names discourages the use of possessive apostrophes in geographic names (see above),[88] though state agencies do not always conform; Vermont's official state website provides information concerning Camel's Hump State Forest. In Microsoft Word for Windows, holding down the Control key while typing two apostrophes will produce a single typographic apostrophe. A similar facility may be offered on web servers after submitting text in a form field, e.g. Some words have two apostrophe's such as " 'n'," which stands for "and." How long will the footprints on the moon last? It is often criticised as a form of hypercorrection coming from a widespread ignorance of the proper use of the apostrophe or of punctuation in general. For example, the French word pin's (from English pin) is used (with the apostrophe in both singular and plural) for collectible lapel pins. Such conversion is not always correct. Some have argued that its use in mass communication by employees of well-known companies has led to the less literate assuming it to be standard and adopting the habit themselves.[84]. [96] In a letter to the English Journal, Peter Brodie stated that apostrophes are "largely decorative ... [and] rarely clarify meaning". Similarly, there is an Andorran football club called FC Rànger's (after such British clubs as Rangers F.C.) A rule of thumb is to find out what the text is abbreviated from and put the apostrophe(s) where the missing text is. Farley has lost his shoes. In Microsoft Word it is possible to turn smart quotes off (in some versions, by navigating through Tools, AutoCorrect, AutoFormat as you type, and then unchecking the appropriate option). What is it called when you combine words with apostrophes. A mark of punctuation, the apostrophe (') indicates the omission of one or more letters. For example: Finally, in "scientific" transliteration of Cyrillic script, the apostrophe usually represents the soft sign ь, though in "ordinary" transliteration it is usually omitted. PLURAL POSSESSIVE NOUNS Plural nouns, remember, are simply nouns that indicate more than one, such as boys. If you're not sure of the correct apostrophe placement, you can also try looking it up in the Merriam Webster Dictionary. Using an apostrophe to word ending in "s" can be tricky. The only words that should ever show possession with an “apostrophe s” are nouns that show possession. In addition there is a list of Words that end with apostrophes , words that contain apostrophes , and Synonyms of apostrophes . Alternatively, typing Control-Z (for Undo) immediately after entering the apostrophe will convert it back to a typewriter apostrophe. For singular forms, the modern possessive or genitive inflection is a survival from certain genitive inflections in Old English, for which the apostrophe originally marked the loss of the old e (for example, lambes became lamb's). For instance, the HTML5 standard specifies that this value is interpreted as this character from CP1252. In writing, an apostrophe is used to indicate the place of the missing letters. foo = 'He said "Bar!"';. It is sometimes used when the normal form of an inflection seems awkward or unnatural; for example. If a noun is plural and ends in S, you only need to add an apostrophe at the end to make it possessive. Let’s take a look at some of the various approaches for this possessive. If a word ends in -s, -ch, or -z, how do you make it plural? This is like an ordinary possessive use. In the UK there is a tendency to drop apostrophes in many commonly used names such as St Annes, St Johns Lane,[86] and so on. Smart quotes features often incorrectly convert a leading apostrophe to an opening quotation mark (e.g., in abbreviations of years: ‘29 rather than the correct ’29 for the years 1929 or 2029 (depending on context); or ‘twas instead of ’twas as the archaic abbreviation of it was). (. (, Those things over there are my husbands'. Joining words together like this makes your writing easier to read and more friendly. Modern Spanish no longer uses the apostrophe to indicate elision in standard writing, although it can sometimes be found in older poetry for that purpose. Outside the world of professional typesetting and graphic design, many people do not know how to enter this character and instead use the typewriter apostrophe ( ' ). The modern spelling convention distinguishes possessive singular forms (Bernadette's, flower's, glass's, one's) from simple plural forms (Bernadettes, flowers, glasses, ones), and both of those from possessive plural forms (Bernadettes', flowers', glasses', ones'). Because typewriter apostrophes are now often automatically converted to typographic apostrophes by word processing and desktop publishing software, the typographic apostrophe does often appear in documents produced by non-professionals, albeit sometimes incorrectly—see the section "Smart Quotes" below. ).So do a lot of proper nouns (Mr. Jones, Texas, Christmas).There are conflicting policies and …