Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Where I stand on 's


Okay, had a debate the other day with people about "apostrophe after s."

I go with Strunk and White (no matter what!) and the classic "Charles's tonsils" example. If whatever your noun is ends in an s - no matter, add an apostrophe and an s. No exceptions! Don't care!

the laundress's sullen demeanor

Francis's sculpture


Plural gets just an apostrophe:



He didn't like the Beatles' music at all - this made him an asshole.


I won't get into the repulsive mispunctuation one sees today, where sibilant mouthbreathers add an apostrophe to whatever: "free book's!" or what have you. That just sign-of-the-apocalypse shit and should remain beneath contempt.

No comments: