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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab

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To: Janice Shell who wrote (138)	1/2/1998 4:50:00 PM
From: Jack Clarke	Read Replies (2) of 4710

Janice: Zeev had some questions about the apostrophe and I went over some of the basics with him in an earlier post. Your question has to do with why people feel they need to put in erroneous apostrophes to confirm that their word really is plural; the s just isn't enough for them. Belt and suspenders, you know. If in doubt, put in that apostrophe or punctution mark. Of course I haven't any idea why they do it, other than the general level of illiteracy in our society. The worst form of this error is seen on printed Christmas cards, wishing you SEASON'S GREETINGS FROM THE CARTER'S. And I always ask rhetorically, "The Carter's what? House? Dog? Family?" I also do rhetorical answers to TV personalities. For example: Talk show host: "Do you think the media is biased?" My answer: "Yes, they is. And stupid, too." Zeev had some pertinent questions regarding the use of the apostrophe to form the plural of acronymic objects, like VCRs, or with numerical objects, like the 1990s. I can see where this use would be perhaps more excusable, but I still don't like it. Jack

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