You Had Me…

2 Comments

• 
  Franz October 25, 2011 at 2:20 pm

  The improper use of your / you’re is one of my pet peeves. This is very funny!

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  • 
    Anne Williams, VP and Staff Writer, Professional Résumé October 25, 2011 at 2:53 pm

    Hi Franz,

    Thanks for your comment! I have been a member of the Apostrophe Protection Society, UK, since 2002. Let’s review:

    The Apostrophe Protection Society was started in 2001 by John Richards, now its Chairman, with the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this currently much abused punctuation mark in all forms of text written in the English language.

    The rules concerning the use of apostrophes in written English are very simple:

    1. They are used to denote a missing letter or letters, for example:
    I can’t instead of I cannot
    I don’t instead of I do not
    it’s instead of it is
    2. They are used to denote possession, for example:
    the dog’s bone
    the company’s logo
    Jones’s bakery (but Joneses’ bakery if owned by more than one Jones)

    … but please note that its, which is usually used as a possessive adjective (like our, his etc), does not take an apostrophe:
    the dog ate its bone and we ate our dinner
    … however, if there are two or more dogs, companies or Joneses in our example, the apostrophe comes after the ‘s’:
    the dogs’ bones
    the companies’ logos
    Joneses’ bakeries

    3. Apostrophes are NEVER ever used to denote plurals! Common examples of such abuse (all seen in real life!) are:
    Banana’s for sale which of course should read Bananas for sale
    Menu’s printed to order which should read Menus printed to order
    MOT’s at this garage which should read MOTs at this garage
    1000′s of bargains here! which should read 1000s of bargains here!
    New CD’s just in! which should read New CDs just in!
    Buy your Xmas tree’s here! which should read Buy your Xmas trees here!

    Note: Special care must be taken over the use of your and you’re as they sound the same but are used quite differently:

    your is possessive as in this is your pen
    you’re is short for you are as in you’re coming over to my house

    - Anne Williams

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