I subscribe to A Word A Day, a daily email providing interesting words and their etymology. Well, being a Grammar Grouch myself, I certainly notice the best responses to the AWAD editions, which are published on Sundays. I found this one regarding apostrophes particularly helpful:
From: Jim Halverson (jhalv aol.com)
Subject: dog's age
Your use of the possessive "dog's" reminded me of an example I used in my workbook Spelling Works to illustrate the difficulty of spelling possessives in English. If this sentence is written with no apostrophes or commas, as if it were being imparted orally rather than in writing, then it becomes impossibly ambiguous: "We lost the dogs leashes and bones." Hmm, just what was lost? Dogs, leashes, and bones? One dog's leashes and bones? Two or more dogs' leashes and bones?
English unfortunately evolved with the same affix, -s, used for possessives (from Old English and Old Norse) and most plurals (mainly from the French influence). To differentiate between the two, the apostrophe was then added. But the correct placement of that little mark is not easy, especially for children, because we have to stop and ask ourselves, "Is that noun a plural, a singular possessive, or a plural possessive?" And then we have to remind ourselves that the apostrophe indicates possession only for nouns, not for possessive pronouns like hers. How often have students written -- have I written! -- something like "The dog lost it's bones."
You've never had that problem? Quick, correct any mistakes in this sentence in two seconds: Billy said, "Its so funny when the dogs tails wagging."
Until next time, my friends, happy grammaring!
Susan K. Morrow
512-257-2737
www.SusanKMorrow.com
