Most of the time when you’re talking about decades, for example, the 1980s, 1970s or 1960s etc, you should not place an apostrophe before the ’s’ – lots of people do, but have the courage of your convictions and refrain. Just say no.

So – the following are correct (all without an apostrophe):

“The 1960s saw many changes in society.”

“Shirts with big collars were popular in the 1970s.”

“In the 1950s, women were expected to stay at home.”

If you need some basic information about the possessive apostrophe, go to: The possessive apostrophe. Part 1 – the basics.

Shame on you, closing down DVD shop!

The DVD is...

I spent a very happy 20 minutes today perusing TEStazyk on wordpress – how exciting to discover so many fellow grammar nuts! I love English and although I appreciate that it’s evolving and blah blah blah I do think that we are rapidly losing the ability to use it correctly and both adults and kids (with the exception of mine who wouldn’t dare split an infinitive if they want their pocket money) seem to have no idea how it works.

These are the only people who can get away with a split infinitive and even then I'd like to correct them...surely spock must know better?

misuse of apostrophes is among my pet hates and should be made punishable by death, or at least something very nasty

I wrote a blog the other day about grammatical errors ( “I don’t want to talk grammar, I want to talk like a lady”)and was very pleasantly surprised by the number of readers – it seems there are nerds aplenty about and some who are a whole lot worse than me when it comes to grammatical pedantry!

So in the meantime I will continue my very uncool campaign to improve the use of English amongst those around me, or at least until the last of my friends has decided they are fed up with me boring them with “It should be fewer, not less” and left me alone to ruminate on the correct use of semi-colons.

If you need some basic information about the possessive apostrophe, go to: The possessive apostrophe. Part 1 – the basics.

I will use the acronyms ‘MP’ (Member of Parliament) and ‘PTA’ (Parent Teacher Association) to show how to use the possessive apostrophe with acronyms.

 ”The MP’s papers were scattered all over the office.”

 This means the papers belonging to one MP were scattered.

 ”The MPs’ papers were scattered all over the office.”

 This means the papers belonging to two or more MPs were scattered.

 ”The PTA’s AGM was cancelled last year.”

This means the AGM of one PTA was cancelled.

 ”The PTAs’ AGM was cancelled last year.”

 This means that the AGMof two or more PTAs was cancelled.

If you would like to help maintain my future sanity, please don’t put apostrophes into acronyms when they are not required. For example, if you are talking about ten MPs, that’s how you write it (not “ten MP’s”). Remember to throw something at your TV screen every time you see this abomination scrolling along the bottom of BBC News – it happens regularly, so best to use a sponge.

See also Apostrophes and acronyms.

How many millions of people read the Yahoo! front page every day? How many of them noticed these errors?

The semicolon should be a comma (it takes the place of an and). If you adhere to Associated Press style (which Yahoo! allegedly does), you form the plural possessive of a singular proper noun ending in S (like Williams) by adding just an apostrophe.

They’re not going to create a hubbub, but the punctuation problems on Yahoo! TV’s ”Daytime in No Time” blog might affect people’s opinions of the writer:

People is already plural, so that apostrophe belongs before the S:

while year is singular and its possessive is year’s:

No biggie mistakes. Just careless ones.

This synopsis of tonight’s “Top Chef” on Yahoo! TV takes the cake:

Though there’s nothing grammatically wrong with using both remaining and left in the same sentence, one of them would have been sufficient. (When you’re writing for the short attention span of Web readers, fewer words are always better.) But there’s a mistake in the use of its, which should be the contraction it’s. And the use of combines might politely be called a typo.

Now your avatar (that cartoony character from Yahoo!) can proudly display a misused apostrophe, just like the rest Yahoo!:

The plural of UFO is UFOs — no apostrophe required. Not content to misuse an apostrophe on Yahoo! Avatars, the writer also omits the S in UFO in the caption.

Here’s an interesting moral dilemma. Should online newspapers correct the grammar and spelling of a contributor if they want to use the contributor’s comment on a different page of the paper?

A story about NME’s ‘top 50 albums of the noughties’ in the Guardian online today has attracted nearly 500 comments from readers. The following contribution was singled out and used on the paper’s separate ‘Culture’ page:

‘im shocked faithless didnt make it in there with “no roots”‘

Except by the time it got to the Culture page, it looked like this:

‘I’m shocked Faithless didnt make it in there with No Roots.’

Some editor somewhere had added capital letters and apostrophes to spruce up the grammar and punctuation. Except “didn’t” was left incorrect (should be “didn’t” with the apostrophe replacing the missing ‘o’ in “did not”).

Was this missed by the editor? Or left in as a nod to the original? Either way, I think it looks terrible on a main page of a ‘quality’ paper.

But should contributions be singled out and corrected in this way? The writer didn’t want or ask for an online (and very public) English lesson – they just wanted to share their opinion.

Tricky questions.

Are you at your wits’ end about the inability of  Yahoo! Shine editors to know when an apostrophe is called for?

Practicing punctuation in some people’s view may be as exciting as washing dishes, but by providing an interesting context or creating a game-like atmosphere, study of the topic is more enjoyable. This is key because a memorable exercise facilitates the retention of information. Many months ago, I shared the activities News Writer and Partner Swap to help students learn correct use of punctuation marks. Let me offer one more:

 SENTENCE FIRST AID

LEVEL: High beginner to advanced. You can make the activity level-appropriate by writing sentences with suitable vocabulary and grammar.

STEP 1 – Compose 5 sentences. Include mistakes targeting the punctuation already studied, e.g., final sentence punctuation, quotation marks in direct speech, use of commas in complex and compound sentences, and use of apostrophes in contractions. Each sentence should have at least one punctuation mistake. Prepare individual copies of the sentences for the students. You can indicate the number of mistakes in each sentence.

Model:

1. I wanted to take the dog for a walk but it was raining (2 mistakes)
2. The storm was so bad that the lights went out so we couldnt see in our house. (2 mistakes)
3. My mother found some candles but she didnt know where to find matches. (2 mistakes)
4. My father asked Don’t we have a flashlight. (3 mistakes)
5. By the time we found the matches and the flashlight the power had come back on (2 mistakes)

STEP 2 – Prepare “band-aids” on paper. For every mistake in the five sentences you created, there should be a slip of paper with the punctuation mark named and its use cited. Examples: period = used at the end of a sentence; question mark = used at the end of a question; comma = used before a coordinating conjunction such as and, or, but. Prepare enough sets of band-aids for small groups of 4-5 students. (For instance, if you have a class of 15, you know you’ll have 3 small groups, so you’ll need 3 sets of band-aids.)

STEP 3 – Divide students into small groups of 4-5. Distribute copies of the sentences.  Give students 1-2 minutes to look through them silently. Then place a set of band-aids in the center of each group. Taking turns, each student draws a band-aid from the pile and decides which sentence to apply it to. The other members of the group can agree or disagree. Once a collective decision has been made, all members must make the correction on their individual copies.

STEP 4 – When all the band-aids have been used, the corrections will be shared with the class. Volunteers can write their answers on the board.

STEP 5 – RECOMMEDATION: Repeat the activity with a second and even third set of sentences.

Online resource: The Punctuation Tree

Hey, kids! Here’s a really fun game just for you on Yahoo! Kids. Yahoo! has hidden goofy goofs on its Kids site and it’s up to you to find them all. I found four hidden treasures. How many can you find?

Here’s what I uncovered, starting with some computer code:

And then I discovered a missing S in seasons:

What the F? (Ask your mom what that means.) Georgia O’Keeffe is missing an F:

And the contraction I’m is missing the apostrophe:

That was a really hard one! But I found it! How many can you find?

If you need some basic information about the possessive apostrophe, go to: The possessive apostrophe. Part 1 – the basics.

If you’re already familiar with all that jazz, look at the following sentences:

 Prince Charles’ organic garden is his pride and joy.

 Prince Charles’s organic garden is his pride and joy.

Which is correct? Well, both are – although be aware that some strict grammarians would say that the omission of the final ‘s’ as in the first example above is wrong.

Here are a few more examples, all of which are correct:

 Final ‘s’ left off

 Jesus’  enemies were numerous.

 Nicholas’ friends left him behind.

Mars’ atmosphere is hostile to humans.

 Final ‘s’ included

 The wineglass’s rim is chipped.

 The lioness’s paw was injured.

 Les’s wife has left him.

Remember not to swap between the two options in the same piece of writing – be consistent.

Note that where an organisation has chosen to use an apostrophe in its name in a particular way you should do the same. For example, St James’s Hospital in Leeds is always spelt with the final ‘s’ after the apostrophe in “James’s”.

“Its’” (with the apostrophe after the ’s’) is never right.

Never. Ever.

This error was spotted in a Times Online reader’s comment in response to a story about the PM’s phone call to the bereaved soldier’s mother, Mrs Janes. Part of the comment included this sentence:

“The real shame in all this is the spectacle of The Sun milking it for all its’ worth. Shameful.”

The writer wanted to say: “…milking it for all it is worth.” The shortened form of ‘it is’ is ‘it’s’, with the apostrophe replacing the second ‘i’.

Did I mention that “its’” (with the apostrophe after the ’s’) is never, ever correct?

Find out more about it’s and its.

Find out more about the possessive apostrophe.

It’s the most neglected contraction on Yahoo!. And it appears yet again on Yahoo! Shine without its apostrophe:

I can’t believe that a professional writer doesn’t know the difference between its and it’s, just as I can’t believe the writer thinks that prom is a proper noun:

I’d rather believe that these are just two careless errors.

Not a week goes by without somebody somewhere getting me going on this one. I spotted this on the Guardian’s online ’sportblog’ page in a piece recommending You Tube video clips:

“Plus, check out the dainty ladies of Cesmac exchanging lavender-scented pleasantries with Sóesporte in a Brazilian amateur league game last month, and this from a recent girls’ game in the States.”

Well, I skipped the ‘dainty ladies’, but I checked out the ‘girls’ in the ‘girls’ game’ and I can confidently report that they were, in fact, women. Yes, indeedy. And there was I expecting to see a clip of some schoolgirls playing football. (I wasn’t really).

Does it matter? Yes. Calling women ‘girls’ undermines and infantilises them. If you wouldn’t call a man a ‘boy’ in the same context, don’t call a woman a ‘girl’.

See more on this topic in Am I allowed to say that?

Thanksgiving at grandma’s place needs a little something on Yahoo! Avatars:

The Jolie-Pitts get an extra character on Yahoo! Shine:

The plural of a name (hyphenated or otherwise) that doesn’t end with an S is almost always spelled with the addition of an S.

Who couldn’t use a helpful flow chart on the do’s and don’ts of apostrophes? Well, the folks at the Oatmeal have created one!

There’s so much more where this came from. Check it out.

Hat tip to Captain Moondog at Today in Awesome.

The moral of the day, Wordwatchers, is don’t assume that the clever people who write and edit our illustrious broadsheets always get it right. Victoria Coren, the Guardian’s poker expert (don’t ask) tells us:  

“I finished just outside the money in the High Roller event at the EPT. And its – at least partly – my own fault.”

What she means is: “It is at least partly my own fault”.

Therefore, “it is” should be shortened to “it’s” (not “its”), with the apostrophe telling us that the second ‘i’ has been left out.

Find out more about ’it’s’ and ‘its’.

If I had a nickel for every boneheaded error on Yahoo!, I’d be a wealthy crotchety nitpicker. I’m not talking about the little typos that seem to creep into everyone’s writing from time to time. (Yes, even mine.) I mean the stupid misspellings that any spell checker would find. And the misuse of punctuation that is usually found only on hand-written signs in a grocer’s window. (“Tomato’s $.99/lb”)

I’m talking about the mistakes made by the professional writers at Yahoo! who can’t spell pumpernickel. (It’s pumper and nickel. Get it?) I’m talking about using an apostrophe in a simple plural. And I’m talking about Yahoo! Shine, which provides today’s examples.

My vote goes to omitting an apostrophe in a contraction.

Thanks to Yahoo! omg! for illustrating my point.

Oops. The apostrophe seems to have slipped out of this headline on Yahoo! Shine:

The bods at the BBC really should know better. Here’s the headline currently at the bottom of the screen in relation to BBC News’ coverage of the procession through Wootton Bassett of our fallen soldiers:

“Soldiers’ repatriated”

Soldiers’? That apostrophe should not be there. And – it’s as if the BBC has hacked into my computer to monitor my every utterance as I write because they’ve just corrected the headline to:

“Soldiers repatriated”.

With no apostrophe – which is what it should have said in the first place.

It’s a double whammy - a notice in a bookshop (of all places) aimed at children (of all people):

‘Childrens Reading Area’ – which should, of course, be ‘Children’s Reading Area’.

Did I a retrieve a pen from my bag, take a swift look around to make sure no-one was looking and insert the missing apostrophe in the interests of small readers everywhere? I couldn’t possibly say.