[NTLK] 20 MB memory cards FAQ

Dennis Swaney romad at aol.com
Mon Dec 3 11:26:14 EST 2012


I was taught that an 's at the end of a noun was possessive, meaning
"belonging to". The main exception is that "it's" is a contraction not a
possessive; "its" is the possessive form for it. Additionally, if the
possessor noun ends with an "s" then only the apostrophe is added at the
end as with my name: Dennis', not, Dennis's. Of course this was 50 years
ago, and with the continual dumbing down of our public schools in these
United States, it may no longer be taught.

-- 
Sincerely,
Dennis

On Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 8:45 PM, Doug Denby <ddenby at rogers.com> wrote:

> In previous versions of English punctuation, an apostrophe was used to
> append the "s" in plurals. This habit seems to have evolved out of modern
> punctuation, but it makes sense when applying the plural to an abbreviation
> as it separates the actual abbreviation from the plural suffix, which could
> otherwise be considered part of the abbreviation. The lack of a subsequent
> noun that would make the noun with the apostrophe into an adjective is
> sufficient to recognize the purpose of the apostrophe.
>
> And for a similar reason it can and maybe should be applied to proper
> nouns, such as the Smith's and the Jones's, and maybe even to the
> Gruendel's.
>
> Doug
>
> On 2012-12-02, at 6:42 PM, Frank Gruendel wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > if you are interested in one of my 20 MB linear flash memory cards,
> please
> > get your favourite beverage, lean back, relax, and read the following
> FAQs
> > (no, there isn't an apostrophe in FAQs) thoroughly. I apologize to all
> list
> > members who already know this by heart.
> >
>



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