Why is the apostrophe the most abused punctuation mark in the English language?

Question

Is it just me being paranoid, or do people find it difficult to understand when an apostrophe should and should not be used? Take these examples...

(A sign in my local DVD rental shop window)
Two night's for the price of one

(An answer to one of my questions on Yahoo! Answers)
I have hen's myself.... but you don't need one [a rooster] for egg's

(This one takes the biscuit - I bought a football club raffle ticket, and my name was written down as........)
Paul Burn's

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

People just don't know when to use it. I was watching Swiss Toni the other night and his sign actually says "Swiss Tonis Motor's" Not sure if that was an intentional dig at the misuse of our language or not!!! I distinctly remember this being drummed into us in English lessons, maybe the education system nowadays isn't so good!!!

Answer 2

No doubt many would argue that the standard of education has dropped but, as a teacher, I do appreciate that understanding and grasping where and when to use the apostrophe for omission and possession is not easy. Also there are the exception as to every rule which confuses students even more. It is very satisfying when ,as a teacher, you can see that a student has grasped the finer rules of using the apostrophe. Also, believe me, it is not only the shop keepers who have difficulty with the apostrophes! - I find in schools that many of the staff cannot even use the apostrophe properly! So often, when folks see an "s" they automatically think that they must insert an apostrophe and they just throw one at the page and hope that, if it is required, it lands on the right space! Seems that we need to get back to the basics which are important and which do count when we want to use the English language properly. Not everyone, of course, thinks this way in our modern world! More's the pity!

Answer 3

It is a bit confusing if you've never been properly taught.

A lot of people don't understand the difference between the posessive and the plural. "It's" and "Its" confuses the matter even more - because when we say "The sun's hat is on" you use one, but if it's "Its hat fell off" we don't.

Seeing so many s's with apostrophes without being clearly told when to use them and when not to, leads a lot of people to think that every s needs an apostrophe, without really understanding the purpose of them. We learn by example, and with so many dreadfully punctuated signs on the street, it's hardly surprising people grow up confused.

Personally although it's annoying, I don't find it half as odd as people who think they have to put inverted commas around everything. I regularly see signs outside pubs reading '"Hot Snacks" available' (which leads one to ask - "are they not really hot then?")

I don't think it's a modern disease though. People in general are a lot more literate than they were a hundred years ago (just being able to read is a good start!). Education isn't necessarily of a worse standard, it just isn't as elite as it used to be - these days everyone is taught to read and write. In the past a vast majority of the population was unable to spell it's own name, so I don't think decline in education has much to do with it.

(Incidentally, my own favourite apostrophe mis-use comes from Lynn Truss's book "Eats Shoots and Leaves" - a racist piece of graffiti reading "n**ger's out" - to which some bright spark had added "but he'll be back shortly.")

Answer 4

I agree that the apostrophe is a useful punctuation mark that is very poorly understood by very large numbers of people.

There's one important thing to remember though: this isn't new. There was never a golden age of the apostrophe. Literacy in English, along with education generally in English-speaking lands, has generally increased and improved over time. The real difference is that far more people now have access to the means of publishing their thoughts in writing, so apostrophe misuse is a good deal more visible.

Answer 5

Generally there are only a meant to be a few rules...

1, if something was yours or belonged to someone:

Paul Burns' car
(This applies if there is only one of that object)
OR
Michael's chickens
(this apostrophe applies if someone has more of something)

2, If it is shortened:

Don't(do not), Can't (cannot)

but don't get this confused with wont, which does not have an apostrophe. I agree with you on the fact that english uses way too many of these things!

Answer 6

You muight have ended the question with "Any thought's" but, well done, you didn't. You obviously know the rules.
The problem with the apostrophe is that it isn't taught properly these days and, possibly in the hope of appearing to be clever, people strew it willy-nilly wherever they can.

I don't think you've reached the stage of paranoia yet but I and a few others who had to learn the rules share your exasperation. Perhaps the problem lies with the modern approach to teaching, which is for pupils to learn by discovery and simply giving pupils information to learn is seen as bad. Well, OK, if that's the way modern teachers are trained to teach but never forget:
Those who can, do.
Those who can't, teach,
and those who can't teach, teach teachers!

Answer 7

Could be a few explanations

1. Lots of people are just plain stupid
2. The general standard of education is slipping
3. The English language is changing and the apostrophe will be more and more arbitrarily used until it is abandoned altogether.

Answer 8

oooh ! I dunno? I think - I've managed to 'buse most punctuations - including the much maligned '-' or dash - not a hyphen mind you but the dash used instead of a breathing comma or full stop. As for the apostrophe its major problem is not knowing if it's a possesive mark or an abbreviation and the fact that it's used in the behavioural it's but not in the possesiive its.

Answer 9

This makes me crazy also. I keep telling people: "The addition of the letter "s" without an apostrophe makes the word plural (more than one) and the 's (apostrophe s) means 'belonging to.'" No one ever seems to listen.

Answer 10

Two reasons
1. It's not taught properly anymore
2. We're surrounded by example of how NOT to use it and then the incorrect ways slip into our subconsciousness and we begin to use it at the wrong times.

I say we should all go around with big red pens and correct all that we find!