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Apostrophes

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  • english grammar and pronunciation really get on my tits, because it's a constant reminder how shit I am at it!

    why do we have to have words, there, their and they're all sound the same, so what does it matter which one, one uses, surely the context of what ones writing/saying will give you the correct one!

    our language is so pretentious!;-))
  • english grammar and pronunciation really get on my tits, because it's a constant reminder how shit I am at it!

    why do we have to have words, there, their and they're all sound the same, so what does it matter which one, one uses, surely the context of what ones writing/saying will give you the correct one!

    our language is so pretentious!;-))

    *English
    *Why
    *one's
    *Our

  • I'm grateful to this thread for prompting me to re-listen to Apostrophe (') by Frank Zappa (with Jack Bruce on bass).
  • cafcfan said:

    I'm grateful to this thread for prompting me to re-listen to Apostrophe (') by Frank Zappa (with Jack Bruce on bass).

    very good album.
  • Chizz said:

    english grammar and pronunciation really get on my tits, because it's a constant reminder how shit I am at it!

    why do we have to have words, there, their and they're all sound the same, so what does it matter which one, one uses, surely the context of what ones writing/saying will give you the correct one!

    our language is so pretentious!;-))

    *English
    *Why
    *one's
    *Our

    smart arse;-))
  • edited August 2014
    Let me dig out some notes I wrote a while ago:

    The golden rule of apostrophes is never, ever, ever, EVER use them for plurals. EVER.
    Other than that, they're used to mark a contraction (such as 'they are' -> 'they're') or to denote possession ('Bob's hat' or 'Palace's crappy stadium'). 'It's' and 'its' are weird exceptions. 'It's' is short for 'it is' and 'its' means 'of it' in the same way that 'his' means 'of him'.

    There are sound reasons not to combine homophones (words that sound the same but are often spelt differently). One good reason is accent. Certain words, such as 'their' and 'there' may sound the same in one accent but not in another. If we were to abandon standard grammar and spelling rules, written English from one area (e.g. Yorkshire) would eventually become incomprehensible to someone from somewhere else (e.g. California) as certain words would be homophones in one accent but not in the other. You may argue that 'you're' and 'your' could be combined, but considering that 'you're' is a contraction of 'you are' and has nothing to do with the word 'your', it'd be make a lot more sense to leave it the way it is.
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