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I don't know how to use apostrophes
Satsumomo
Rated PG!Registered User regular
Rated PG!Registered User regular
I've perused the rules of apostrophes and well what I want to know isn't included there, so I'm guessing it's wrong. But if it's not, I would like to know if someone here can help me:
John is a hipster. --> John's a hipster.
Is this incorrect?
John is a hipster. --> John's a hipster.
Is this incorrect?
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ed: also rule #1 from that site answered your question
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Great thanks!
It's = possessive
Its = contraction of 'it is'
I had trouble with the above for years.
That's incorrect.
his hat is big
her hat is big
its hat is big
No apostrophe for any of those possessives
He is going = He's going
she is going = she's going
it is going = it's going
contraction does have apostrophe
The word "its" is a possessive. "It did not know its own error."
The word "it's" with an apostrophe is "it is" as a contraction. "It's an extremely common error."
The confusion may be with the fact that most possessives are indicated with an apostrophe. For example:
"Chris Redfield's muscles are enormously huge. He must take steroids."
Yep, grammatically you're in the clear.
Though stylistically, I would refrain from using an "is" contraction with a proper noun in writing. It sounds fine in speech, but in writing in just looks... wrong.
I agree. I just changed a "which's" to "which is" like ten minutes ago, in fact. It's technically okay, but that doesn't mean people won't read it wrong.
I'm pretty sure that (which's) is not okay. Some words just don't contract well even if we've gotten lazy and slur them together in common speech.
That would be extremely informal, but I can't find a source to say it is flat out wrong. I certainly wouldn't use it in any scholarly writing.
Apostrophes in general...
It's vs. Its
This is MY car.
This is YOUR car.
This is HIS car
This is HER car.
This is OUR car
This is THEIR car.
See? Nary an apostrophe to be found. Likewise the 3rd person gender-neutral pronoun "it" doesn't use an apostrophe, either:
The knife has lost ITS edge.
The best simple rule I ever heard regarding the apostrophes is when in doubt, leave it out.
The worst part is my trouble came from someone questioning my use of apostrophes a long time ago. I thought I had it wired. Now I'm going to be paranoid about this for the rest of my life.
edit: thought I'd explicitly mark this as improper apostrophe use to be sure the gag doesn't further confuse people
As you should be.
For a more visual explanation, and the Oatmeal is awesome
"When in doubt don't use an apostrophe"
I guess I wont use it then :P
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
99% of the time in writing, when you see NAME-'-S it's used in the possessive.
The President's speech was good. Bob's Car Lot is kind of sketch. I hate Mary's intergalactic shipping company.
So when you write "John's a hipster", my brain goes "John" has an "a hipster"? What the hell does that even... oh, John IS a hipster.
It's not that you're wrong and can't write it that way, it's just that it throws people's brains for a small loop because it's relatively unusual to see NAME-'-S due to a contraction and not a possessive.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Ooooh, if you want it to be possessive- it's just I-T-S,
and if you want it to be a contraction then it's I-T-apostrophe-S...!
:whistle:
What about when I'm using "it" as an abbreviation of "Italy?"
Strong Bad's Rhythm and Grammar did not teach me such minutia. Thus, it is probably unimportant.
I rather like the two trochaic feet of "John's a hipster," personally.
Writing for dialog is different from writing for anything else because you are going out of your way to write imporperly to mimic the way we speak. The problem with "John's a hipster" isn't that it sounds strange. It sounds perfectly natural because of the way we naturally slur words together when we speak. Everybody does it. That's why one of the few phrases I remember from my years of taking German in high school and college is "Sprechen Sie doch langsam, bitte" which means "Speak slowly, please." You're jamming words together with no regard for how they look when written because you inplicitly thrust those you are talking to to glean the missing pieces from context. You don't always have that luxury when writing so things like contracting everyting to "is" doesn't fly when writing for anything that is not dialog.