Comment on Germans decry influence of English as ‘idiot’s apostrophe’ gets official approval
BumpingFuglies@lemmy.zip 5 weeks ago
Interesting. In English, I’d say the “idiot’s apostrophe” an apostrophe that’s used for a non-possessive, non-contraction ‘s’.
E.g., “The Johnson’s are going to the mall to buy pizza’s.”
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Doesn’t “idiot’s” in this example show possession?
And the “Johnson’s” is a plural?
BumpingFuglies@lemmy.zip 5 weeks ago
In English, apostrophes are only used for possession and to indicate missing letters (usually vowels), as in contractions.
My example showed apostrophes incorrectly being used for non-possessive plural nouns. I used a proper noun (“Johnson”) and a common one (“pizza”) to better illustrate my point.
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Thanks.
Wanted to make sure I was getting what you were puttin’ down.
Yea, the rules are pretty clear, at least I always thought so.
Kind of telling that so many people can’t be bothered to understand it.
vatlark@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
It’s not always that simple…
BumpingFuglies@lemmy.zip 5 weeks ago
Nah, it’s pretty simple. Pronouns don’t use apostrophes for possession; they only use them for contractions like “it’s”.