Apostrophe, or not?

T

tablariddim

forexU2
Valued Senior Member
Is it correct to keep the apostrophied words in these phrases? It seems more logical to drop the apostrophe, but is it good grammar?

bald as a baby’s arse

as she spoke in the big man’s ear

sitting so close to the redhead’s pungent aroma

would have been proud of his namesake’s resourcefulness

the world’s second oldest profession that is

hawk’s eyes darting about and focusing on

the water’s movement

more clues to these people’s eroticism

Peter’s mental state prevents him

main suspect in Claudia’s murder

obsessed by Claudia’s purity and

before George’s mother returns

on the bitch’s well worn gash
 
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Nickelodeon said:
Edit: those are all wrong, the apostrophe should be after the s.
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No.
tablariddim has them correct.
You should put the apostrophe after the "s" when the "s" is making it plural, or when the "s" is part of the word...


Jesus' words were...
Bulls' tails are... (indicating the tails of more than one bull)
 
You're right, its only when there are more than one e.g babies: The babies' room (if there are more than one babies etc.)
 
one_raven said:
You should put the apostrophe after the "s" when the "s" is making it plural, or when the "s" is part of the word...
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This is not correct. You, like millions of people, were confused during the 1980s and early 1990s, when newspapers saved space by adopting the horrifying practice of leaving off the final S in constructions like "Mr. Jones' Hat." It is "Mr. Jones's Hat" and it is pronounced JONZ-EZ, two syllables, not JONZ, one syllable.

The practice spread and became utterly ridiculous, when you'd see headlines like "President Gomez' Speech" or "The Peace Process' Failure." You would never think of pronouncing those possessive forms without the extra syllable, if you hadn't seen it in the newspaper, the final arbiter of style in the English language.

Fortunately they stopped doing this ten or fifteen years ago and now write Gomez's and Process's correctly. However the damage was done, and you can hear uneducated people say "Mr. Jones' Hat" as if JONZ were one syllable instead of two. Ditto for Gomez', although these people get so confused that their tiny brains explode when they try to figure out how to pronunce Process' without a third syllable.
Jesus' words were...
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This is simply incorrect. Don't do it, ever. I'm sure you'll still see it in writing because the illiterati picked it up from the newspapers 20 years ago, but it's still wrong. No decent editor or professor will allow it.
Bulls' tails are... (indicating the tails of more than one bull)
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This is correct, but it's because the S is a plural ending, not part of the basic word. The paradigm is:

Bull -- Bull's
Bulls -- Bulls'
 
I'll take your word for it Fraggle.
It never seemed right to me, but I was often corrected on it.
 
leopold99 said:
will you people make up your minds?
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Fraggle is correct. For one thing it should NEVER be used to indicate plurality ("I saw five dog's" is totally incorrect).

It's used to indicate one of two things - posession/ownership ("It's Bill's hat.") and as a contraction (" Bill's wrong" - meaning "Bill is wrong).
 
Fraggle Rocker said:
This is not correct. You, like millions of people, were confused during the 1980s and early 1990s, when newspapers saved space by adopting the horrifying practice of leaving off the final S in constructions like "Mr. Jones' Hat." It is "Mr. Jones's Hat" and it is pronounced JONZ-EZ, two syllables, not JONZ, one syllable.

The practice spread and became utterly ridiculous, when you'd see headlines like "President Gomez' Speech" or "The Peace Process' Failure." You would never think of pronouncing those possessive forms without the extra syllable, if you hadn't seen it in the newspaper, the final arbiter of style in the English language.

Fortunately they stopped doing this ten or fifteen years ago and now write Gomez's and Process's correctly. However the damage was done, and you can hear uneducated people say "Mr. Jones' Hat" as if JONZ were one syllable instead of two. Ditto for Gomez', although these people get so confused that their tiny brains explode when they try to figure out how to pronunce Process' without a third syllable.This is simply incorrect. Don't do it, ever. I'm sure you'll still see it in writing because the illiterati picked it up from the newspapers 20 years ago, but it's still wrong. No decent editor or professor will allow it.This is correct, but it's because the S is a plural ending, not part of the basic word. The paradigm is:

Bull -- Bull's
Bulls -- Bulls'
Click to expand...
How sad that proper grammar is no longer taught.
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Actually that's exactly what I was taught.
 
tablariddim said:
Is it correct to keep the apostrophied words in these phrases? It seems more logical to drop the apostrophe, but is it good grammar?

bald as a baby’s arse

as she spoke in the big man’s ear

sitting so close to the redhead’s pungent aroma

would have been proud of his namesake’s resourcefulness

the world’s second oldest profession that is

hawk’s eyes darting about and focusing on

the water’s movement

more clues to these people’s eroticism

Peter’s mental state prevents him

main suspect in Claudia’s murder

obsessed by Claudia’s purity and

before George’s mother returns

on the bitch’s well worn gash
Click to expand...

Those are all correct.
 
spidergoat said:
Those are all correct.
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I don't think this is correct: "the world’s second oldest profession..." I think it should be "The worlds oldest profession..." Ditto for "the water’s movement..." It should be "the waters movement..."

I'm also curious why no one has mentioned such terms as "it's", a contraction for "it is" ...and others like it.

Baron Max
 
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