The Misuse of Apostrophe's (Steve's Grammatical Observations #2)

See the Steve's Grammar DEMO REEL with links to other episodes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWtk1JtCnls

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The apostrophe is being grossly misused, not only to pluralize nouns, but most recently in the 3rd person conjugation of verbs. for example: he want's - wtf???

Category:

Education

Tags:

• grammar
• english lessons
• bad grammar
• english language
• language
• apostrophe
• misuse of apostrophe
• pluralization
• mistakes
• writing
• ESL
• EFL
• learn english
• PLOMO MEDIA
• PLOMOMEDIA
• steve thomson

[mooseboy18]

Tell 'em, Steve! (another correct usage of the apostrophe-- 'em for "them", although colloquial)

[Plomomedia]

@mooseboy18 good one!

[TemporalSpleen]

You forgot to mention not to use apostrophes in posessive pronouns as in its (belonging to it).

[Plomomedia]

true. i did another video on its.

[lizzinablack]

It is interesting to see how similar mistakes affect different languages... Anyway thanx again, your videos are a great help for non-mother tongue :D

[Plomomedia]

thanks. more to come hopefully this year.

[LadyWeasel]

Thank you, Steve! You've spoken out about one of my biggest pet peeves.

[flyerfanatic93]

I want to see him rage about the "should of" error. It isn't I should of tied my shoe! It is I should HAVE tied my shoe!! Thumbs up =)

[archipeldesign]

Misuse of apostrophes is a great way to announce to people on web forums "I'm a little bit dumb".

[RAMONDlAZ]

lmao dude you're the man

[alexman951]

'So I watched thi's video and I decided to po'st a comment, I know exactly how to u'se apostrophe's and alway's have, 'so that i's why I po'sted thi's comment.

[pweifenbach]

@twin2tx2

He did that on purpose though. To prove his point.

[pweifenbach]

PREACH, Steve!! I am so damn irritated by the blatant misuse of poor Mr. Apostrophe.

[twin2tx2]

apostrophe's?  really?

[NintendoArielle]

@josephmil123 Honestly, I've never heard of "photo's" used as a contraction, especially considering that "photos" is already short for "photographs." My dad is 62, so I'll ask him if this was ever the case.

 Either way, most people who write "photo's" are doing it because they simply don't know how to use apostrophes correctly.

[josephmil123]

@NintendoArielle OK - I admit that it's really uncommon for some our age to use it in that way, but loads of older people whom I know use it in that way because it's in their lifetimes that they've seen it change from "photographs" to "photo(')s", and seeing as it is a direct contraction, it is logical to use an apostrophe. Language changes and in fifty years time, this will all but died out; in the meantime, it could be that some people know more about the grammar than those 'correcting' them!

[NintendoArielle]

@HonoraryCheesehead Josephmil is wrong. "Photo's" is not a contraction for "photographs." "Photo" is short for "photograph," so "photos" is the plural of "photo." There is no "phone's" for "telephones," either.