[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Why do you care so much Urbane?

Why do you ask? I respect my mother tongue and use her properly. Incompetence isn't good, and incompetence this elementary is unbecoming an adult human. Don't ask again: this is my answer and it's a good one.

I don't think it's contemptible to want to see in others' writings, what they intended rather than wilfully disparage it simply for a misplaced apostrophe. Actually, apostrophes are one of the more difficult concepts in the English language to grasp.

I do not and did not find it so; indeed, apostrophes as used on this side of the pond are among written English's most systematic and logical usages. I had these mastered before I left elementary school. Surely, if I can manage it, without flaws...

Many, many people who are otherwise perfectly competent at communicating in both verbal and written arena, and whose vocabulary is just as extended as either yours or mine, have difficulty with the correct usage of apostrophes. There are one or two very specific usages of the possessive apostrophe that I have to think carefully about and I used to teach the language.

I took the liberty of amending your spelling -- and yes, it takes me some memory-scouring and in some extremities the dictionary to remember if it's -ant or -ent -- the -ent is "one-who-does-something" most of the time but not all. (A careful course in phonics early on helps a great deal.) We can blame it on not having an English equivalent of the Academie Francaise. (Diacriticals omitted; this BBS does not cooperate with ASCII-coding them in. Try it only if you'd like to see which surprise page you end up on.)

I simply know those specific usages -- and I do give thought to what are somewhat gray areas, such as pluralizing abbreviations, where one can argue that an apostrophe there is standing in for those letters not included in the abbreviation. This usage has the virtue of not effecting an alteration of the abbreviation. Too, if one is quite uncomfortable with adding the tadpole, abbreviation in uppercase and the pluralizing -s in lower is still an option.

There is a reason we have the phenomenon of the Greengrocer's apostrophe.

A reason as infamous as its examples are widespread -- they were asleep in fourth-form English class.

Competence is good. More competence is better, and it is hardly unreasonable to expect it.