Germans decry influence of English as ‘idiot’s apostrophe’ gets official approval - eviltoast
Linguistic body has relaxed rules on use of apostrophe to show possession, not traditionally correct in German
  • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
    22·
    1 month ago

    Doesn’t “idiot’s” in this example show possession?

    And the “Johnson’s” is a plural?

    Or do I misunderstand what you’re trying to say saying?

    • BumpingFuglies@lemmy.zipEnglish
      9·
      1 month ago

      In English, apostrophes are only used for possession and to indicate missing letters (usually vowels), as in contractions.

      My example showed apostrophes incorrectly being used for non-possessive plural nouns. I used a proper noun (“Johnson”) and a common one (“pizza”) to better illustrate my point.

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
        2·
        30 days ago

        Thanks.

        Wanted to make sure I was getting what you were puttin’ down.

        Yea, the rules are pretty clear, at least I always thought so.

        Kind of telling that so many people can’t be bothered to understand it.

        • BumpingFuglies@lemmy.zipEnglish
          3·
          1 month ago

          Nah, it’s pretty simple. Pronouns don’t use apostrophes for possession; they only use them for contractions like “it’s”.