Friday, January 4, 2008

A catastrophe with an apostrophe

Without going too much into the origin of the good ole apostrophe, it is an essential part of the English language, and I get annoyed by people misusing it. Apostrophes denote that letters have been omitted, and the word containing an apostrophe is either a contraction of two words, or a shortened one.

The most abused contraction is It is. Which of course gets turned into It's, if used properly.

Cue the possessive its. Example: The cat licked its fur.

Now for the confusion: It's clear that the cat has licked its fur. Some people will jumble up the apostrophes and write
Its clear that the cat has licked it's fur. Cue some pretty sulphurous remarks from this writer.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would be mortified to find I'd made that mistake!
Martha :-)

Anonymous said...

Isn't it amazing how confusing it can be ~ Take care and enjoy your weekend!
Katie

Anonymous said...

I do not know if I have ever done this, but I think if I did, it would annoy even me.

:)

God bless-
Amanda

Anonymous said...

That is one that irritates me, too.  I especially get irritated when I'm the one who makes the mistake! lol  
Lori

Anonymous said...

I am loving these... from both of you!

be well,
Dawn
http://journals.aol.com/princesssaurora/CarpeDiem/

Anonymous said...

I'm a little behind on reading journals, so just now discovered this one.  I I'll stop back soon, read, and comment.
                                             Smiles,  Leigh

 

Anonymous said...

I was thinking this was  a shared journal and I was going to make a post of this but I wanted to include it here so here goes...

Basic English 101:

your--elating to you or yourself
you're--eaning you are
have--o hold or maintain as a possession
half--either of two equal parts

I cannot stand it when these are mixed up-I wonder if people are confused,ignorant,or
just plain lackadaisical.
I will not post a tag that has 'your welcome'
That is the same as condoning that way of wording the paraphrase.
If someone writes I half to go to the store-Oh please -just shoot me now!!

~connie~

Anonymous said...

Oh Phooey-
the 'r' in relating was cut off when I added a hyphen- here it all is --
Basic English 101:

your-relating to you or yourself
you're-meaning you are
have-to hold or maintain as a possession
half-either of two equal parts

I cannot stand it when these are mixed up-I wonder if people are confused,ignorant,or
just plain lackadaisical.
I will not post a tag that has 'your welcome'
That is the same as condoning that way of wording the paraphrase.
If someone writes I half to go to the store-Oh please -just shoot me now!!

Anonymous said...

lol..I think I'm going to love and learn from this new journal of yours!
Gem :-)
http://journals.aol.com/libragem007/collage/entries/2007/12/31/2007--a-year-in-review--/1769

Anonymous said...

The misue of the apostrophe as in it's is one of my peeves, too.  I can't believe people do it so often.  One way I learned not to do it is to say it in full and then you can easily see when the apostrophe is in order.  Othewise don't use one. I have always used that rule to keep from making that mistake.   Gerry
http://journals.aol.com/gehi6/daughters-of-the-shadow-men/  

Anonymous said...

Guido, I'm with you on this!
Traci