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Germans decry influence of English as ‘idiot’s apostrophe’ gets official approval
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2024
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Interesting. In English, I'd say the "idiot's apostrophe" is 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."
Doesn't "idiot's" in this example show possession?
And the "Johnson's" is a plural?
Or do I misunderstand what ~~you're trying to say~~ saying?
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.
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.
It's not always that simple...
Nah, it's pretty simple. Pronouns don't use apostrophes for possession; they only use them for contractions like "it's".