Plural words do Not require apostrophes!!
By Sillychick
@Sillychick (3275)
United States
February 6, 2008 12:37pm CST
Why is this such a common mistake? I see it everywhere. I understand that people, myself included, make typos and that is fine. I can overlook an occasional mistake, especially in an informal forum such as here on mylot. But I see this mistake everywhere. Last week I was reading the paper, and saw the 'Classified's.' On the news I saw something about a feature that will be starting on 'Wednesday's.' It is everywhere. I don't understand the confusion. It's one of the more straight forward rules of grammar.
1 person likes this
3 responses
@cdejac (98)
• United States
21 Feb 08
I agree with you sillychick. I can't believe how many times I have either read the newspaper or the closed captioning on TV and see all the mistakes! It drives me crazy. Yes, sometimes we do make typing errors and that is forgiveable. I can't forgive poor spelling, though and that is my problem. If anyone needs help with their spelling, I'd be glad to help.
cdejac
@Sillychick (3275)
• United States
20 Mar 08
On closed caption I can understand a little more, since they are typing in real time and don't get a chance to edit. But in the paper or the headlines on the news, there is no excuse.
@daniraius (98)
• Romania
23 Feb 08
So, do you want to say that we may say wednesdays and classifieds?Thank you to remember me theese rules, because I forgotten them.But I am glad tihs is a common mistake for the native English speakers, because I am not.
@Graagh (95)
• United States
15 Feb 08
I think that this has to do with the idea that many people, especially those who have had some bad experiences with their English teachers as children, have a strong fear of being incorrect. They seem to think that they should be adding more punctuation or using things that sound "proper" rather than "natural". The apostrophe in plural is one of these mistakes; using I when it doesn't belong in compound nouns is another.
Grammar shouldn't be some tool of snobby people and English teachers, but people seem to think that they have to try really hard to get grammar correct. Sometimes it's better to just let it go anyways. If you try to fix your grammar but get it wrong, you'll probably sound worse.
