In early elementary school, we were taught that an apostrophe is placed before an 's' to show singular possessive (the cat's meow or the baby's coo).

Why do people -- people under 35 usually -- put an apostrophe before 's' that indicates a plural? (The girl's got two coat's for Christmas or Those kitten's certainly are frisky when they play with ping-pong ball's). That is totally wrong!!!

-no name- lol

my mom does that to, i have no idea, i think that might have been what they were taught in their time.

J_9

The way I remember it is if...say...the cat's meow... The cat, his meow. The apostrophe replaces the "hi" and leaves the cat's i.e. "the cat, his meow." Etc.

ebaines

The mistake I see most often is people misusing not using 's for singular possessive for words that already end in "s." For example, the following is proper: "James's house," yet too often I see people write it as "James' house." If you think about how this is pronounced, which is like "Jameses house" you can see that the first is correct. I suspect people get confused over the use of s' for plural possessives.

J_9

Ebaines you are correct, however, as in my secretarial days not too long ago, the latter (James') is now acceptable.

GoldieMae

And to add, what's with the interchangeable "then/than" thing?

These two words don't mean the same thing at all.

it is "if x, then y" and "greater than/less than" Or "rather than"

I hate that misuse. And it's taught by public schoools today to be "rather then". That's wrong.

GoldieMae

For words ending in "s" such as James, the best rule is that if the word has one syllable, it is "James's" If it is more than one syllable it is "Descartes'"

Strunk and White teaches James's and Descartes'

I have no clue what Chicago style teaches. I haven't seen a Chicago manual in years's.

Capuchin

This list is invaluable to the learning English speaker (and to most native English speakers): List of frequently misused English words - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also, although a slightly different topic, a reason why we shouldn't rely on spelling checkers:

Ode to a Spell Checker

I have a spelling checker
I disk covered four my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot see.

Eye ran this poem threw it.
Your sure real glad two no.
Its very polished in its weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a blessing.
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when aye rime.

Each frays comes posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o’er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.

Bee fore wee rote with checkers
Hour spelling was inn deck line,
Butt now when wee dew have a laps,
Wee are not maid too wine.

And now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
There are know faults in awl this peace,
Of nun eye am a wear.

To rite with care is quite a feet.
Of witch won should be proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaws are knot aloud.

That’s why eye brake in two averse
Caws Eye dew want too please.
Sow glad eye yam that aye did bye
This soft wear four pea seas.

jillianleab

But what is the cat is a "she"?????????????? "The cat'e meow"?




Oh, and "affect" and "effect" drives me nuts.

br_hjs

wondergirl, maybe they are just like me and don't really think about what they're writing or how they are spelling it.
Wouldn't coat's be like saying "coat is?" or am i wrong here?

labman

I was wondering if anybody else paid attention to problems such as that. That includes it. ''Problems like that'' would mean not that, but other ones such as using like when citing an example.

In my usual Home and Garden hang out, I have noticed a strong correlation between poor spelling and grammar, and the content. Unfortunately, many of the well written ones give bad advice too.