Is the apostrophe dead? Does it matter?

Answer 1

The apostrophe is definitely not dead, and does matter - it's simply that grammar isn't taught as a subject in schools any more, and fewer people know ho to use it correctly. There's nothing worse than seeing "It's" instead of the possessive "Its" - as they mean completely different things!
The way I was taught it, many years ago, the apostrophe denotes the contraction of a genitive (left over from the time when Latin was the standard language), and so represents a missing letter. Where a plural is indicated, no contraction has occurred, so no apostrophe. The exception to this is "It's/its", where the contraction is for "It is". Simple to remember, and easy to enforce.

Answer 2

The apostrophe is almost terminally ill. The comma is in the mortuary. The English language has been dumbed down both in the written and spoken word.

The body mainly responsible for this is the Educational Theorists who sit in ivory towers and dictate the future of generations of pupils.

A child passes through the normal educational system only once. Teachers have to conform to the methods dictated to them, at any given period, by 'expert' advisers, committees and review panels. The children have no redress to the harm done to them by the infliction of the current thinking.

Does anyone recall the meddling with phonetics? What was the fate of 'Programmed Learning'? What was the 'Cambridge Method'? Which bright spark introduced 'Freedom of expression'?

Most important is the question which august body decided that grammar and spelling should become redundant? Should the teacher have to interpret what the child meant to convey in his/her written and spoken word?

There is no effective teaching without effective discipline. There is no effective discipline without effective sanctions.

Disillusioned teachers are leaving the profession in droves. They are constantly being verbally and physically abused. They have very little defence as all too frequently the 'human rights' of their charges take precedence in any situation that may occur.

The amount of bureaucratic form filling and the application of a rigid curriculum is the wet blanket on their enthusiasm for their chosen profession.

Sporting activities are severely curtailed and the compensation culture deters the majority of teaching staff from undertaking any extra-curriculum responsibilities.

Over 2U 4 yr views. Nil illegitimo carborundum!!!

Answer 3

It does matter, just because some people are too stupid to remember where to use it doesn't mean it's dead.
I always use it properly. If people didn't use the apostrophe properly, there would be very few book, sentences, answers et cetera that wouldn't make sense as to who owns what, which letters were shortened et cetera. Basically, everything that uses the apostrophe (possession, for example) wouldn't be able to make sense, as the apostrophe isn't there to represent that.

Answer 4

Heck no! It's a real pain in chat rooms as I'll insist on using apostrophes when called for and often realise I've used them when I don't have to. It also takes more time but conveys proper meaning. It's important to use word contractions in informal chat as you can sound like a robot if you don't. For instance: "I do not like what it has got in the window of that premises. Let us try elsewhere" Sounds better as "I don't like what's in it's window. Let's go elsewhere".
I find that people who're sloppy with apostrophes start using them after chatting to me a while. So I guess it's a case of what people accept as the norm - much the same as text language with younger people. Both save time but cause rot to set in and meanings to change and be misunderstood.

Answer 5

I don't believe it's dead at all! Poor grammatical knowledge has seen its use online diminish significantly, but it's still as useful as ever, in my opinion and in my writing!

Without the apostrophe, we not only lose information about the history of the English language, but we are then faced with increased ambiguity, especially in terms of possessives and contractions. I think that the lack of teaching of traditional grammar in schools is largely responsible for the decline of the apostrophe, but people who actually paid attention to their teachers understand the value of this important diacritic.

Answer 6

10-4 on the declining understanding of the posessive action of this punctuation mark. It rubs my shorthairs in knots when people use the apostrophe to make acronyms plural (because spellchecker tells them to do it.) Does the period go before or after the parenthesis or should I just do a better job with the sentence? Did I spell sentence correctly? With nouns and pronouns ending in "s", do apostrophes simply go after the "s" or do you need to add another "s"? I never add another "s" to mark possesion with plurals. Is this incorrect? What about plurals that end in vowels? Why can I taste gravity? Should I go to CalTech right now?

Answer 7

That's like saying 'is the question mark dead' , and I notice you've used that twice in your question. I can't understand why you would ask such a thing, it's quite obviously not. Now try to re-read this sentence without apostrophes and see how much sense it makes.

Answer 8

The apostrophe is alive,and well it resides with me alongside the oxford comma!
Sometimes it visits Lynne Truss.
Talk to the head 'cos the hand cannot listen!

Answer 9

It's not dead and it does matter. For literate people it assists in immediate recognition of the meaning of a phrase.

Answer 10

The ' may be small, but he's very important. And if more people could bother themselves to learn his correct use, we'd all understand each other a little better.