Pet Peeve #41 - Nancy Drew and the Case of the ‘S
Don’t ask about the title. Put it up to the flu now having taken over my brain.
Talk about basics. You’d think the whole ‘s’ versus ‘’s’ would be a natural thing. Well, perhaps not natural, but at least well known. But apparently it’s not, even in the adult world where a coffee shop can’t even have marshmallow spelled correctly on their menu.
A big pet peeve of mine is people using the apostrophe ‘s’ wrong or leaving out an apostrophe when it’s necessary. Some (incorrect) examples:
The art teacher thinks Bills artwork is quite unique.
The horse’s are wandering around in the paddock.
In case you need reminding, the apostrophe ‘s’ is to show a possessive singular noun. Bill’s unique artwork, Nina’s big farm, the horse’s paddock (if it’s a singular horse).
If you’re confused about plural nouns, then:
The horses’ paddock.
The twins’ play room.
The farmers’ unions.
The same goes for singulars like names that end in ‘s’.
Jesus’ tequila slammer.
Ross’ camping gear.
Peruvians’ sense of history.
One of the more annoying features of this pet peeve, however, is the whole its vs it’s thing that is entirely too simple a concept for the amount of people who mix them up. Typos, I understand, but otherwise, no.
It’s simple.
It’s = it is. If you can replace what you’ve written with ‘it is’ then ‘it’s’ is correct.
Its = is a possessive, like what I talked about above:
The story had a life of its own.
The dog scratched its ears happily.
December 18th, 2007 at 3:00 am
[...] Pet Peeve #41 wasn’t all wrong, mind you, but I stated something that’s wrong. In some circles. That’s the annoying thing about writing: in a lot of the ‘rules’ of writing, you’ll find two sides to it. [...]