Those Pesky Apostrophes

Plurals are formed by adding s or es to the root word. That’s it. Nothing else. This is a simple rule but apparently it’s a difficult one for some people to learn. When I see an apostrophe s instead of plural in a book, I think it’s a typo, but when I see several, I figure the author or editor doesn’t know how to form a plural. When I see misused apostrophes, I usually see many other grammatical errors too, which confirms my impression.

Here are a few examples:

One dog is a dog. Three dogs are dogs.

A single person named Jones is Jones. Two or more people named Jones are Joneses.

One potato, two potatoes 

Photostock image

One tomato, four tomatoes

Photo by Taoty

The Mertz family moved into the neighborhood. There are four Mertzes in the family and one mother-in-law, Mrs. Sartoris. The other Sartorises live in Timbuktu.

Wrong: The Jennings’ live across the street. The cricket’s are loud tonight.

Shall I go on to possessive, the way to show ownership? Might as well. This is where the apostrophe comes in. To show possession for a singular noun, add ’s.

The dog’s bone is buried there. Four dogs’ bones are buried in the garden.

The horse’s hooves kicked up dust in the ring.

The Mertzes’ house is at the end of the street. That’s Mary Mertz’s bicycle in the front yard.

This is true in most cases, but there are a few exceptions. The Chicago Manual of Style, which I use, says the possessive of singular nouns is shown by the addition of ’s except in a few cases, such as species and series, in which it’s generally better to use of as in Darwin’s The Origin of Species or of the as in the last game of the World Series.                                                                       

Right: Ms. Sprouse’s office

BK Photo

Wrong (or possibly AP style): Ms. Sprouse’ office

Someone may chime in with the AP Style (journalistic) on possessives. I think (but I’m not certain) it recommends adding only the apostrophe for the possessive of a noun ending in s. That style evolved in the interest of saving space in narrow newspaper columns.

That’s my rant for today. Does poor grammar turn you off? What makes you roll you