Rogue Apostrophe's

runswithascript

Psyche! The rogue apostrophe in the title is intentional!

It is as simple as that. However, we do have one area of particular difficulty – the matter of singular nouns ending in s. Here, the usual rule is to add apostrophe + s ('s) to the s-ending singular as long as pronouncing the extra syllable (which sounds like "iz" or "ziz") is not awkward. Thus, we have: James's house, Tess's car, and the boss's office. Some s-ending singular nouns, however, become awkward to say if we add "iz" or "ziz" to them. Try sounding out "Jesus(iz) teachings," "Moses(iz) laws," or "Sophocles(iz) plays." It's tough. Thus, in these instances, we use only the apostrophe: Jesus' teachings, Moses' laws, or Sophocles' plays. In such instances, though, we should try to avoid using the possessive case altogether and write: the teachings of Jesus, the laws of Moses, the plays of Sophocles.

There is an exception where we make the letters and abbreviations plural by adding an apostrophe and s. Examples are: "The word written has two t's" and "Our office contains 75 PC's."

Balderdash, right? Oh and I'm not a mystic, someone just linked the website with the religious names.

davros

LA3G wrote: »

Balderdash, right?

Which bit do you object to? It all looks fine to me though I wouldn't have a problem writing "75 PCs".

runswithascript

I was taught in school to use "James'" and never "James's". It just looks so wrong to me...

I feel the same way about "75 PC's" because reading it manifests the idea that the apostrophe is rogue and the author must mistakenly think it indicates pluralism not unlike how they may think the same about the apostrophe in "bulletin board post's".

davros

LA3G wrote: »

I was taught in school to use "James'" and never "James's". It just looks so wrong to me...

Yeah, some conventions of grammar have changed since I was in school too. It's now more accepted to write "Mr" than "Mr.", for example (on this side of the Atlantic, anyway).

I always defer to The Economist Style Guide in matters of this sort. I think The Guardian has one too.

Another old style habit I'm trying to kick is putting a comma after an opening phrase in a sentence. For example, my inclination is to write "On August 2, he invaded" but The Economist Style Guide tells me to lose the comma.

FlutterinBantam

and they are right.