The apostrophe war Lesson 15 of the language course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: the lesson at school .
0 The apostrophe (') has two jobs: it shows missing letters (it's = it is, don't = do not) and it shows belonging (the dog's bowl); it never makes a plain plural, so "Apple's 40p" on a shop sign is wrong. 1 Where it sits tells you how many owners there are: the dog's bowl (one dog), the dogs' bowl (several dogs sharing), the dog's bowls (one dog, lots of bowls). 2 Plurals that don't end in s just add 's: the children's toys, the men's toilets, the people's choice; plurals ending in s add only ': the ladies' toilets. 3 Grown-ups really do fight about it: Birmingham took apostrophes off its street signs in 2009, the bookshop Waterstones dropped its apostrophe in 2012, and an Apostrophe Protection Society ran from 2001 to 2019. 4 Some questions have two accepted answers: James's book and James' book are both used, and even famous places disagree: St James' Park in Newcastle, St James's Park in London; pick one style and stick to it, and copy official names exactly. 5 An apostrophe shows missing letters or shows belonging; it is not used to make plurals. 6 The greengrocer's apostrophe is the name for a wrong apostrophe in a plural, like "Banana's 30p"; a greengrocer is a shop selling fruit and vegetables. 7 The dog's bowl means one dog's bowl; the dogs' bowl means one bowl shared by several dogs; the dog's bowls means one dog with several bowls. 8 Both James's book and James' book are used; style guides differ, and what matters is being consistent. 9 St James' Park is the football ground in Newcastle; St James's Park is a royal park in London; for names, copy the official spelling. 10 Shops choose their own names: Sainsbury's keeps its apostrophe, Harrods has none, and Waterstones dropped its apostrophe in 2012, causing an argument in the newspapers. 11 In 2009 Birmingham City Council dropped apostrophes from its street signs, and many people protested; in 2013 Mid Devon council tried a similar ban and changed its mind after complaints. 12 Modern style guides write decades as "the 1990s" with no apostrophe; in "the '90s" the apostrophe shows the missing "19". 13 It's means it is or it has; its means belonging to it and has no apostrophe, like his and her. 14 The Apostrophe Protection Society was set up in 2001 and closed in 2019; its founder John Richards said "ignorance and laziness" had won, while others said apostrophes aren't that important. 15 Plurals not ending in s add 's for belonging: children's, men's, women's, people's. 16 Plurals ending in s add just an apostrophe for belonging: ladies', the girls' changing room. ← previous Punctuation that changes meaningnext → Formal and informal: a mate versus the head teacher↑ back to Language This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/15-the-apostrophe-war/