If there’s one grammatical mistake that riles me it’s misuse of that lovely tool… the apostrophe. I call it the itinerant apostrophe coz it seems to move about a bit! It’s particularly upsetting to see it used where the writer thinks that it’s necessary when talking about plurals of an item. You’ll invariably see it used at a greengrocery when they talk about banana’s meaning multiple bananas. I hadn’t believed that butchers were guilty of the apostrophe crime until I saw this sign indicating that they sold legs of lamb.
You can find out lots more about the use of apostrophes at http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/apostro.asp (it’s an American site so you may not wish to trust it!), http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/apostrophe (which is of English parentage so it should be trustworthy) or www.apostrophe.org.uk/ (the Apostrophe Protection Society site).
Totally agree Winno.Bug’s me sumthin’ terrible.However the rule about it not being used in the “possessive’ain’t necessarily correct.Here is what the Concise Oxford Dictionary(1558pp)said in 1969(and much earlier)…..”sign of omission of letter,or possessive case”.
Thanks for the regular tips.
Peter Phelan