By Apostrophes, Expressions

Are you asking about forming a possessive by the addition of apostrope-s? If so, then here are some thoughts. I just wrote this stuff off the top of my head, so it's not meant to be any sort of definitive analysis. There is no problem with making possessives from inanimate nouns. For...

, perhaps slightly higher."

Hi, I have difficulty figuring out how to write the word that follows something like an 'as much/twice as something' or 'twice as something' expression -- should it be in a 'plain' form or in the possessive? I feel some people are unable to correctly the right situations...

Hi, I would like to know what one of the follow sentences would be correct:Run for your life, boys. OK. The speaker is thinking that each boy has one life.Run for your life's, boys. No. The correct expression is 'Run for your lives, boys. There's not a lot of difference, but the speaker is...

Can I also write: Human Passions' Narrator or Human Passions NarratorNo. It's best to reserve the apostrophe-s construction for people. Mary's, Mr. Smith's, the women's, etc. half/a half/half-wayThere are hundreds of expressions that use half, a half, the half. See a good dictionary. ...

Hi RosalamaNo answer to your question will please everybody. Many people think no apostrophe should be used in your expressions:in the 1980sThe plural genitive is formed by adding an apostrophe after the plural s, so the genitive should be:I don't like the 1980s' music.However, many people...

Grammar Geek wrote:Hey CB, I assume you were being silly, right? (There being no connection between a sports car and any actual type of sport - except, perhaps car racing...) Hi GGNot in the least. I think you are. No connection between any type of sport and sports equipment? Sports is very...

It is often arbitrary which expressions of this type are formulated as compound nouns and which are formulated with a possessive structure. In general, inanimates are much less likely to appear with 'apostrophe-s'. CJ

Well nona, i think you'r right. I was wrong. I don't know what the hell was I thinking when I red the following passage. "Many writers consider it bad form to use apostrophe -s possessives with pieces of furniture and buildings or inanimate objects in general. Instead of "the desk's edge"...

I'm told that the more recent recommendation is to drop the apostrophe in such expressions, but I still use the older forms. I have a lot of to-do's on my list. One of them is to buy three CD's. More recently, I've seen this recommended: ... a lot of to-dos ... three CDs. CJ