Why are so many people ignorant in their use of apostrophes?

Question

In English, an apostrophe has two basic uses. The first is to show possession; the second is to show omission. Many people seem not to know where to correctly use them; some place an apostrophe is incorrectly in a word, some use an apostrophe where a word is not in need of it and some fail to use them at all.

It may all seem fairly insignificant, but consider the following four phrases, all demonstrating possesive use of an apostrophe, each of which has an entirely different meaning based on the locations of the apostrophes:
1. my brother's friend's house (one brother, one friend)
2. my brothers' friends' house (2 or more brothers, 2 or more friends)
3. my brother's friends' house (one brother, 2 or more friends)
4. my brothers' friend's house (2 or more brothers, one friend)

The second use of an apostrophe, which denotes omission, is also often misused. It must always be placed at the exact point where the omission has occured. Thus, 'have not' = 'haven't' and not 'have'nt'

>b_i_l_l2002
It's not the house that is the issue; it's its owners. (Note the use of 'it's' and 'its'). All four phrases have entirely different meanings because each involves a different number of people.

Also, as has already been pointed out, plurals should never be denoted with an apostrophe. Thus:
one parent, two parents (NOT parent's)
one car, two cars (NOT car's)

I'd like to point out an error of my own before anyone else does!
In my original text, I typed 'some place an apostrophe is incorrectly in a word'. Of course, the 'is' should not be in this phrase! It seems I, the grammar nut, have made a grammatical error of my own!

Answer 1

I agree with you completely and utterly, however, I'm going to reveal something to you that may make you feel very ashamed.
Even though you have already amended your question to correct mistakes, some still exist.
Firstly, you have mispelled your word: "possesive", it should have been spelled: "possessive". Secondly, you have split the infinitive with your phrase: "to correctly use them". Any person who truly loved English grammar would have written: "to use them correctly". (although, to be honest, I would have reworded that whole sentence, it seems too awkward). Nevertheless, you are a rare but admirable breed of human, and we all make mistakes from time to time. Keep up the good pedantry. :)

Answer 2

Place names, even though they may have begun as a possessive needing an apostrophe, are by common usage allowed to lose it eventually. There doesn't seem to be a rule about exactly when they lose the apostrophe, and this results in discrepancies such as the one you describe. There are plenty of inexcusable crimes against the apostrophe in print and general circulation though. There was a redundant apostrophe on a recently printed poster in my sons' bank (Oh yes, two sons, of course), and I just did a double take and told the cashier it was there. Usually I tell people when I see apostrophic crimes, but I try to do it politely, e.g. asking them if they have complained to their printer. At a farmers' market I once asked if I could have a price reduction if I helped them with their spelling (brocolli, I think it was: 2 errors in one word!)--and they said I could have one penny off. Moral: it pays, very, very slightly, to be a raving pedant. Pseudonym45: why haven't you gone in and told them they've lost one of their Ms, and that it could potentially affect their business if people prefer correctly spelled B&Bs? How do you know they won't thank you?

Answer 3

the moving of the apostrophes demonstrates its use as a plural of an already possessive noun. It has three basic uses not two. But thanks for the lesson! It might help a few people who are trying to learn our often confusing language.
I don't know what they teach in UK schools nowadays but I learnt this one before the age of 11 and I don't want to say how long ago that is.
Most of the time I think it's carelessness rather than lack of knowledge and most of the misspelling is text talk and I don't let silly things like that get in the way of reading. It's what they are saying not how they are saying it!

Answer 4

You should also note that a singular or plural noun ending in an "s" should have the "s" after the apostrophe dropped:

The Smiths' flight is delayed (A flight is delayed for more than one Smith)
Ross' friend is ugly (One person called Ross has an ugly friend)

Its and it's causes confusion too. An example of "it's" and "its" (with and without an apostrophe);

It's the dog wagging its tail (It is the dog wagging. The tail belongs to the dog)

I think I'm correct here.

Answer 5

Having English as a second language I have often wondered how native speakers could make such mistakes. I can understand this happening to - let's say - portuguese or irish speakers in their own languages (we're taking about two really complex tongues in terms of grammar), but English is not that diffcult and I can't see any excuse except for those who are still learning the language.

Answer 6

simply because people don't care anymore. I used to be rubbish at this sort of thing until when doing A-Level English lit, my teacher used to mark my work in big fat red pen so I thought about what I was doing. People actually have to care about what they are writing otherwise the English language will be thrown into an oblivion of wrong spelling and bad grammar.
(if any of this is spelt/punctuated wrong, then sorry, still not that good but I try!)

Answer 7

This is not always the case I hasten to add for example

Yates Wine Bar is Yates's Wine Bar

The apostrophe is not the worst to be used in the English language that will be the use of commas

Answer 8

I so agree with you but unfortunately you're not going to be appreciated here - as someone said previously, those who already know don't need to be told, and those who don't know aren't going to take a blind bit of notice of you.
I remember at school pointing out to a friend (who had just finished carefully colouring in the title page of a project) that she had written "A project about horse's". She looked at it for a moment, then replied, "it looks nicer written like that".
There really is no hope, is there?
Did you see M&S had to withdraw a load of Christmas baby clothes from their range after a rogue apostrophe was printed on them. That was funny!

Answer 9

I'm sure the people that want to be aware of this already are, and the rest don't want to know and don't care.

I'd say most people do know but just don't care.
It's quicker not to bother checking and double checking, and if everyone was so pedantic, nothing would ever get done!
No one said writing on the internet would be perfect gramatically or spelling-wise. Stop being such a grammar bully!!

Answer 10

Because people type faster than the keyboard allows, so typo happen.
And also some may not be have using English long enough to know.
There are also those who uses ' ' to denote a character, and sometime in place of " ". How's that?