Apostrophes and how (not) to use them.
So I'm still here. Still working hard.
The progress thus far stands at 172/541 A4 pages edited, which isn't bad going considering I'm also editing my 10k dissertation, doing other associated courseworks and the million and one other tedious tasks my university demands of me. If I get the trilogy finished by April time I'll be more than happy. All that remains after that is to get my cover designed, work out layout plus typeface and typesetting etc, register with Inland Revenue, work out a release date, write press releases and then send to print.
Not much really!
Anyway, back to the point in hand. In this blog I want to discuss apostrophes, and more to the point, how to use them correctly.
It came to me as something of a shock the other day to see a fellow sub-editor's Facebook status set as "God only know's whats in a man's heart". Now far be it for me to criticise another writer, but I was quite astounded by the flawed logic that must have led to the misplaced apostrophe in the word "know" and the missing apostrophe in "whats". I can only hope that this rather glaring error was a mistype (goodness knows I make enough of them!), though I often worry in the world we live in today there is a good chance it wasn't.
For the record, apostrophes are used in two cases: to denote possession; or as a contraction.
Taking the "whats" example first, the intended word "what's" is a contraction of the longer "what is". The way to work out contractions to make sure you get them right is to read over your work and consider what it is you're actually trying to say. An all too common error I always seem to find myself coming across in editing people's work is the confusion of "your" with "you're" and "there" with "their" and "they're".
Say the following through slowly to yourself:
"You're going to pay for that." - "You are going to pay for that."
"You're looking good today." - "You are looking good today."
"Your help is very much appreciated."
The same applies to "there", "their" and "they're", remembering all the while that "there" denotes where something is, "their" denotes that something belongs to a group, and "they're" denotes that they are doing something.
We move briefly then, to possessives, another cause of much confusion amongst the general populous.
In the example I gave at the beginning of this blog, the writer in question said "God only know's whats in a man's heart". The apostrophe in "know's" is completely unnecessary and poor grammar for a number of reasons. Firstly, knowledge doesn't possess you, you possess knowledge. Even then, the verb "to know" already implies ownership on the part of the individual (in this case, God). We do not for example say "Mike hold's the ball", just as we do not therefore say "Mike know's the answer." The use of an apostrophe here then is incorrect on a number of different levels.
A mistake many people make is to confuse singular and plural possessives. These first two are fairly simple:
"The cat's claws." (i.e. the claws of a single cat)
"The cats' claws." (i.e. the claws of more than one cat)
The problems come however when you use a plural, for the solution is to place the apostrophe as you would for the singular:
"The people's champion." (i.e. the champion of the people - "people" already means more than one person so you don't say "the peoples' champion.")
The other big thing many people forget (or perhaps, don't know in the first place), is that time is possessive and obeys the same principles as does a cat or any other possessor.
"A weeks time" therefore becomes "A week's time" (i.e. the time of a single week).
"Two weeks time" becomes "Two weeks' time" (i.e. the time of two weeks).
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Right Ok, I think I'll leave it there for this blog. There is such a thing as information overload. To quote my housemate Tom: "In Lynn we Truss" :)
Next time round: proof reading.