Search results for 'tag:Plural words tag:Apostrophes' matching tags 'Plural words' and 'Apostrophes'

Re: Apostrophe or not an apostrophe - that is the question.

igbruce — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:34:42 GMT

No. A 'thank you' is a colloquial compound noun, like lounge room or room heater, and the 's' in 'thank yous' signifies the plural, so no apostrophe is used.
Apostrophes are used to express possession e.g. Bob's car; or to indicate some letters have been omitted in a contracted word
e.g. 'can't' is a contracted form of 'cannot'. The only exception to the possessive use is with the pronoun 'it'. When 'it' owns something it is spelled 'its', written as 'it's' it is a contracted form of 'it is' e.g. It's raining in Sydney tonight. I think you are confusing what you have written as 'you's' with the slang term for plural 'you'. 'You' has the same form in singular and plural e.g. You have a nice smile; You all heard that; but some slang usages employ a separate word for the plural, usually written as 'youse'.You never say 'youse' unless you are in a gang or something where a slang dialect is used. It is not an accepted English word and signifies that the user comes from a social strata that is very low class or gang oriented.

Ian

Re: Why "all" is singular here?

Abil — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:35:00 GMT

Avangi
"All's I know is, she was drunk as a skunk!"Â (That's not really a plural, if we're thinking about the same thing.)

Avangi, I don't understand why you have used the apostrophe s with "all".

Thanks CJ, for your brilliant explanation. Like Doll, I too used to apply my common sense while using "is" and "are" with "all".

Re: Frequently-asked questions acronym

Philip — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 00:45:51 GMT

Mancroft wrote:
What should the correct acronym for Frequently-asked Questions be?

Presumably, frequently-asked is an adjective and so should be hyphenated.

So, which is correct?

F-AQs
F-aQs

but surely not

FAQs

and certainly not

FAQ's with the greengrocer's apostrophe.

I'm not an expert with acronyms, but I know of no rule that says that a plural word in one must be acknowleged as being so. I'd forget the s altogether.

Apostrophe

Matress — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 23:28:11 GMT

Apostrophe ( ' )

The apostrophe is used when leaving out a letter or number in a contraction, e.g. can't, wouldn't.
The apostrophe is used for omitted letters, e.g. rock 'n' roll, and for omitted numbers, e.g. the class of '72, the '20s.
The apostrophe is used for plurals of letter abbreviations with periods and single letters, e.g. p's and q's, two A's and four B's. Plurals of multi-letter combinations and plurals of numerals end in s with no apostrophe, e.g. VIPs, 1000s.
The possessive of singular nouns ending in s, including nouns ending in s, x, z, ch, or sh, is formed by adding 's, e.g. witness's affidavit. However, if the next word begins with s, then add only an apostrophe, e.g. witness' story.
The possessive of singular nouns not ending in s is formed by adding 's, e.g. VIP's seat, baby's food.
The apostrophe follows the s of a word with two sibilant sounds, e.g. Kansas', Moses'.
The apostrophe is added for the possessive of a noun that is plural in form but singular in meaning, e.g. mathematics' formulas.
The apostrophe follows the s for the possessive of plural nouns that end in s, e.g. girls' movies. For the possessive of a plural noun that does not end in s, add 's, e.g. women's rights.
For singular proper nouns, add only an apostrophe for the possessive, e.g. Achilles' heel.
No apostrophe is used for personal pronouns like hers, his, its, mine, ours, theirs, whose, your, yours. Indefinite pronouns require an apostrophe, e.g. one's lover. For other pronouns like another and others, follow the rule for singular and plural, e.g. another's and others'.
For joint possession, the 's is added to the word nearest the object of possession, e.g. Francis and Kucera's book.
The apostrophe is not used in names of organizations unless actually part of the legal name. The apostrophe is not used in plurals of numerals or multiple-letter combinations

Possessives

The possessive case of most nouns is formed by adding an apostrophe or an apostrophe and 's'.

Possessive for singular and plurals nouns not ending in an S or Z sound are formed by adding 's. Examples: horse's, alumni's
Possessive of singular nouns ending in an S or Z sound are usually formed by adding 's, e.g. hostess's, unless the next word begins with an S or Z sound.
Possessive of plural nouns ending in an S or Z sound are formed by adding only an apostrophe, e.g. churches'.
Possessive of plural nouns that are singular in meaning are formed by adding only an apostrophe, e.g. mathematics' rules. This is also true for a plural word in the formal name of a singular entity, e.g. General Motors' profits.
Possessive for noun that is the same in singular and plural - is formed as if it is plural, e.g. two deer's tracks, one corps' mess hall.
Possessive for singular proper noun ending in s - use only an apostrophe, e.g. Achilles' heel.
Possessive for pronouns -- only for a few, such as: another's, others', someone's. There are no separate forms for the possessive for: mine, ours, your, yours, his, hers, its, theirs, whose.
In a phrase: individual possession is shown with an 's added to each noun, e.g. 'Barbara's and Kyle's bicycles'; joint possession is shown by adding an apostrophe or 's to the last noun in the series, e.g. 'Barbara and Kyle's house'.
Be careful of descriptive phrases. Do not add an apostrophe to a word ending in 's' when it is used primarily in a descriptive sense, e.g. citizens band radio, writers guide.
An inanimate object can have a possessive use. It is treated in a personified sense, e.g. Time's cover.

Forum: New: Common English Questions and Answers - Archived Posts
Posted: Jun 27, 8:14 PM [GMT 1]
Post Subject: Re: Proper use of the apostrophe (Guest:clreilly)
Post author: Jason13_32

The apostrophe is used for two things only:

To signify two words joined: What is = What's

To signify possesion, here's the confussion:

Your bar would be "Harper's Bar" because there's only one "Harper".

If you were all nuns it would be "Nuns' Bar" - Many nuns - the apostrophe is used after the "s"

or

"At the zoo, the children were most interested in seeing the lions' den." - Many lions

Re: posessive for Academy (Guest:Gail)

Woodward — Thu, 07 Aug 2003 18:48:21 GMT

The apostrophe goes after the S only when it is a plural word that ends in S.
The academy's main building....or even better.....
The main building of the academy is located....

Re: apostrophes; business', businesses (Guest:Cas)

Woodward — Thu, 31 Jul 2003 04:23:59 GMT

(child) singular.......children (plural)
Since it is not a plural word that ends in S, we use the 's.......children's toys.
Remember that children never has an S on the end in plural form, the word children is already in plural form.

Re: apostrophes; business', businesses (Guest:Cas)

Woodward — Thu, 31 Jul 2003 03:30:33 GMT

Businesses is correct. It is the plural of Business.

The apostrophe is used to show that something belongs to something else (It's called the Genitive case). Normally (though not always) the apostrophe or apostrophe + s are followed by a noun.
e.g. The dog's bones = the bones that the dog has...one dog.
the dogs' bones = the bones that the dogs have.....more than one dog...plural.
When a plural word ends in S, that is when we only put the apostrophe alone.
e.g. my parents' car