Germans decry influence of English as ‘idiot’s apostrophe’ gets official approval
Germans decry influence of English as ‘idiot’s apostrophe’ gets official approval
Linguistic body has relaxed rules on use of apostrophe to show possession, not traditionally correct in German
Linguistic body has relaxed rules on use of apostrophe to show possession, not traditionally correct in German
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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 saysaying?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".