HELP with the use of these PUNCTUATIONS???? and words???????????????

Question

Hello,
Please explain the use of these punctuations and words to me. how do i know which to use and when?? thanks.

the book was purchased at robinsons'

the book was purchased at robinson's

according to the author's passage.

according to the authors' passage.

he was affected by her smile.

he was effected by her smile.

These are confusing....................please help and explain which ones to use and when???

Answer 1

The book was purchased at Robinson's is correct if the name of the book store is Robinson Book store or Robinson's Book store. If the owner's name is Robinsons, then use the apostrophe after the s.
According to the Author's passage...indicates that one author wrote the passage. If more than one author wrote one passage it would be Authors' passage or Authors' passages.

He was affected (touched, moved, changed) by her smile.
Effect means what has happened...the result of....The EFFECT of her smile was that he was AFFECTED. (That was always difficult for me) Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Okay, I will address each one, and tell you which is correct and why.

1. The first one depends on the actual name of the store. If the name of the store is Robinsons, with no apostrophe, then that's how it should be spelled. If the name of the store has an apostrophe in it, then that's where the apostrophe should go, as well. The apostrophe before or after the "s" shows possession, so I imagine the name of the store would be something like Robinson's Bookstore. However, some businesses drop the apostrophe. You should simply use what THEY use for a name, so it will look like this:

The book was purchased at Robinson's.

If there is no apostrophe in the name of the store, by the choosing of the store owner, then there is not apostrophe in the sentence, either:

The book was purchased at Robinsons.

Also please notice that I have capitalized Robinson's, as it is a proper noun.

RULE FOR NUMBER 1: The possessive in this case is implied, as there is no word following Robinson's (it isn't Robinson's Books, or Robinsons Grocery), so you don't need to make it possessive. There is actually no possession going on in this sentence. You simply need to know the proper spelling of the name of the store, and that will be correct.

2. In the second sentence, apostrophe placement depends on whether there is one author, or more than one author. If there is only one author, the sentence reads:

According to the author's passage,

Notice that there is a comma after passage instead of a period. That is because this is not a whole sentence on its own, but rather a dependent clause, which needs to be followed with something else, so it reads like this:

According to the author's passage, the plague was transmitted by fleas.

If there is more than one author for the work you are citing, then it looks like this:

According to the authors' passage, the....

RULE FOR NUMBER 2: You show possession by adding an apostrophe followed by "s" for singular nouns. You show possession by adding an apostrophe after the "s" for plural nouns. The only tricky rule to remember is that if it is a singular noun that ends in "s", like bus, the apostrophe also goes after the "s": The bus' brakes failed.

3. There is a lot of confusion on affect and effect. While there are certain cases where the general rule does not hold true (and with which I won't confuse you) the general rule is that affect is a verb, and effect is a noun. The way I was taught to remember this is affect = verb, an action word (just remember the A for action.)

He was affected by her smile.

You would use effect in this sentence if it were used in the place of a noun, such as:

His smile had an effect on her.

Notice how the verb in the new sentence is now "had", and effect is now a noun.

RULE FOR NUMBER 3: Affect is a verb, and you remember that by remembering that verbs are Action words. If the word in question is used as a noun, it is effect. There are certain other special cases where affect/effect serve as different parts of speech in a sentence, but I am not going to confuse you with those because more than 90% of the time, the usage I have given you above is the one you will need to use.

I hope this helps clear up some of your confusion. I know these are extra hard for people to remember, as I see them all used incorrectly all the time :)

Answer 3

OK...#1, the apostrophe (that's this thing ') should go before the s because it's a singular possessive. (If you had bought it from a store owned by his whole family, then it would have been from "the Robinsons'.")

#2, it depends on how many authors. Again, a singular possessive (one author) puts the apostrophe before the s, while a plural possessive (more than one author) puts it after the s.

#3, the first one. Always. Effect as a verb means to cause or create, so unless her smile directly caused him to exist, it's the first one.

These words are especially confusing because they can also both be used as nouns. An effect is something that happens because of a cause. An affect is a mood or behavior, but the word is pretty much only used by psychologists.

Answer 4

This is difficult from the context you give. It could be that the word "store" (or shop) is implied, so each sentence is saying "The book was purchased at (name of store in possessive form) shop" showing that the shop belonged to somebody named Robinson or Robinsons. However, stores often use the possessive form as part of thier name, so it could just be a statement of the store's name. Whoever has set you these questions has given a poor example if they are trying (as I think they are) to demonstrate the use of possessives with already plural words.

This one is better!
according to the author's passage.
One author has written the passage.
according to the authors' passage.
More than one author has contributed to the passage.

Basically, to show that a noun is possessive (that something about to be named belongs to it), you use an apostrophe. If the noun ends in an "S", you just stick the apostrophe on the end. If the noun ends in any other letters, you add an apostrophe and then an "S". Your first example, I think, is trying to illustrate the difficulty of the case when a singular noun ends in an "S", which often happens with names.
John Williams has a car.
That is John Williams' car.
However, if you just stick to what the word ends in, and don't worry about whether it is singular or plural, you should be OK.

he was affected by her smile.

he was effected by her smile.

You are not the only one confused by this. While both words can be either noun or verb, your best bet is to treat AFFECT as a verb and EFFECT as a noun. Both sentences, however, are poorly written. To use affect as a verb (and not as a potential adjective, as in the sentence above), you would say:
Her smile affected him.
To use effect as a noun, you would say:
Her smile produced an effect in him.

Answer 5

If a proper noun ends in an s, you use s's

That is the Jones's house.

If a regular noun ends with an s, you use s'

She cleaned out the dogs' pen. (Multiple dogs)

If it is a plural noun, proper or not, you just use an s. When it's a business name, just write it however they do it for the business:

The book was purchased at Robinsons/Robinson's. (whatever the formal business name is)

Who let the dogs out? (no need for a possessive apostrophe)

If it is a singular noun with an s at the end, you need an 's for the possessive form. If you were talking about one class, you'd write:

That was the class's favorite field trip.

But if you were talking about multiple classes, you'd write:

That was the classes' favorite field trip.

In speaking, you really couldn't tell the difference between those two statements.

Regarding affect and effect, for most uses:

affect is the verb form: "He was affected by her smile."

effect is the noun form: "Her smile had a powerful effect." There is a related adjective form: effective, like "The preacher's sermon was quite effective." And an adverb form: effectively, "He runs the office effectively." And there is also a usage for effect as part of a verb form: take effect, "When does that new law take effect?" (I'm really not sure what part of speech effect is in that last example.)

Generally you affect something to create an effect, meaning you influence some in order to cause something to happen.

Unfortunately, some times effect is used as a verb, as in trying to effect a change, meaning trying to create a change.

And there is also a context in which affect (with the stress on the first syllable) is considered a noun, in a psychiatric context. A psychiatrist may say a patient displays a "high affect" which means he is in a good mood. And related to that usage, you have the adjective affected: "She seems rather affected, always putting on airs." Also a verb usage, talking about showing a external mood that does not match your internal mood: "Actors need to learn to affect whatever mood is required by their role."

I know that's a bit confusing. The English language is rather peculiar.

Answer 6

You would use the apostrophe AFTER the s if the word is plural or ends in s. So, in the first sentence, the name of the store is Robinsons (like a whole family of Robinsons own the store), therefore the apostrophe goes after the s.

In the second sentence, the name of the store is Robinson, so the apostrophe would go after the word, followed by an s.

In the third sentence, author is singular, so you would use an apostrophe plus an s. In the fourth, the writer is referring to several authors, so an apostrophe follows the s.

In the fifth sentence, the use of affect means that the smile influenced him. In the sixth sentence, the use of effect would mean that he was created or brought into being by her smile. The writer might be attempting to show that the smile brought him to life, perhaps.

Answer 7

robinsons' that is the stores name or the person they bought the book from s' is pretty much the same as 's.
robinson's now that one the store or persons name is robinson.
ok according to the author's passage it means it is the aurthors no one elses and aurthors' is more then one.
affected–adjective 1. acted upon; influenced.
effected-Something brought about by a cause or agent; a result.
The power to produce an outcome or achieve a result; influence: The drug had an immediate effect on the pain. The government's action had no effect on the trade imbalance.


i hope that helped.

Answer 8

Robinsons' would mean that it is posessed in the plural, more than one Robinson is reffered to.

Robinson's is singular posessive

The difference between author's and authors' is the same. The first refers to a passage written by one author, the second refers to a passage written by two or more authors.

"He was affected by her smile" is correct, using effected would not make any sense.

affect- is a verb and means to influence or touch something, like emotions, or it means to simulate, in your case it is the first definition.

effect- is more commonly used as a noun and means a change, ie. the effect of a punch in the face is pain. As a verb it means to bring about, ie. The volunteer likes to effect changes in people's lives.

Answer 9

the book was purchased at robinsons'

Only good if the store is name Robinsons, with the s.

the book was purchased at robinson's

according to the author's passage.

Above is correct for one author, below would be for more than one author, but it would probably be used with passages for plural.

according to the authors' passage.

he was affected by her smile.

Above is correct, effect is what would have done. Her smile had an effect...

he was effected by her smile.

Answer 10

When do they use Robinsons'?
They mean that the store's name is Robinsons because we cannot put an apostrophe s after a name ending with "s".

When they say Robinson's, it means the name is Robinson.

Author's is for one author.

Authors' is for more than one authors

Affected is the correct word, effect is actually a noun.
The effect of the seminar is very impressive.
I was affected by the yawn.

Hope my answer helps
Dr. Asker