A Silly Question...Where Has The Apostrophe Gone?

[Me.]

I have been noting lately that words which indicate possession haven't been using apostrophes. Also missing in contractions. It's become quite common on lots of threads by people I know to be very smart. Is this a thing now, one I've missed out on?

[TreasonousBastard]

1. It's gone off on its quest to find the semicolon.

[SCantiGOP]

10. According to Trevor Noah:

Semicolons are used to show you have a Masters Degree; that is why I use them.
Now, where is my umlaut?

[athena]

26. I picked up my semicolon habit in high school.

As much as some people may find it elitist or annoying, I find it too useful to be able to let go of it.

[True Dough]

48. Much better than

a coke habit!

[athena]

56. LOL!

[Thor_MN]

95. Had an exam last month, hoping to avoid a semicolon.

The prep is the worst part - but everyone should get a colonoscopy when they are 50+.

[hvn_nbr_2]

80. Some of them ran off with plurals

as in Billys shoe's

[WhiteTara]

104. ...

Very good

[ProudLib72]

2. I noticed it too

Cut and paste quotes lose their apostrophes. I put it down to some sort of HTML transcription issue.

[Else You Are Mad]

3. I think it probably

Has more to do with autocorrect and the difficulty of editing on a smart phone than ignoring any grammar rules.

[Me.]

6. Interesting

I started noticing how common it has become and actually didn't quite put it down to ignoring grammar rules. I figured there has to be something more to it.

[LOL Lib]

30. That's the problem for me.

My phone thinks it knows better than I do. We used to quarre daily and I realized the phone was trolling me, so I stopped giving a shit. Now I just let it decide when to use the apostrophe. Life is too short to argue with this phone. Mind you, it has no soul and is very persistent. I have tried to correct it many times and it corrects my correction. Fuck this thing.

[ProfessorGAC]

44. That's Weird

Both my phone and tablet ADD the apostrophe. If i type didnt, the autoselect adds the apostrophe between the n and the t, which i find useful so i don't have to hit the shift key to get to the apostrophe.

And even where something like "cant" is a homonym of "can't" my devices offer both choices.

I wonder why a programmer would miss something so simple.

[LOL Lib]

49. My phone is actually getting better.

It was worse when new like it had to learn my particular style. The "re-corrections" are spelling of commonly abbreviated words usually. I didn't have that problem with apostrophe. Sorry I wasn't clear. It seems to know common contractions right away, but still doesn't get most cases of possession unless told.

[ProfessorGAC]

60. Yeah, That Makes Sense

It's so common that the plural of a word just ends in "s" that the autocorrect doesn't know whether one wants a plural or a possessive. My android tablet is better than my phone, because it almost always offers both choices, but not always. My phone, not so much.

[R B Garr]

47. This absolutely has to be the reason. One phone I had inserted the last few words

I had written when I tried to insert a apostrophe, so I had to backspace those all out to continue typing. You just give up after awhile. Not to mention, they do have their autotype or correct features that are hard to spot on a small screen. Even names have an auto spelling. For instance, Chaffetz auto corrected to Chavez when I started typing it and I didn't notice it. Also, Franken just auto completed to Frankenstein, but luckily I caught that. There were a few other names that auto corrected and I luckily caught them out of the corner of my eye. I would bet most of what is being noticed is because of phone typing, and then internet typing in general has caused the deterioration for brevity reasons, etc.

[LOL Lib]

54. That is maddening!

I had a kindle that drove me nuts. I turned off all the predictive and auto correct stuff. Finally got rid of the kindle. Pawned it off to niece.

[Me.]

59. +1 Million

[usedtobedemgurl]

74. I am annoyed at my phone because....

it always spells 'spanking' with a capital 's'. I cannot seem to break it of that habit. I wish I knew how to reprogram it.

[Chellee]

81. Do you use "spanking" in a lot of sentences?

Hmmm....

[usedtobedemgurl]

91. I use it many times a week....

maybe twenty to thirty. I run with an interesting crowd!!!

[SwissTony]

107. That's a spanking good question. (bit British, though) n/t

[eleny]

87. That's why I'm so hung up on my pc

But it's awfully hard to slip into my back pocket.
...... ......

[mfcorey1]

4. It's chasing the preposition at the end of a sentence.

[Iggo]

8. Never use a preposition to end a sentence with.

These are words to live by.

[SCantiGOP]

13. Ending a sentence with a preposition

Is something up with which I will not put.

[Amaryllis]

72. Once got a Bday card that said: Happy Bday to someone out with whom I like to hang.

[Me.]

73. Literally?

[mfcorey1]

15. That's my point! You missed the intent of the reply to the post.

Last edited Fri May 26, 2017, 03:13 PM - Edit history (1)

The poster has ended the sentence with a preposition.

[DetlefK]

29. "A preposition is nothing to end a sentence with."

See? It works.

[Me.]

9. Cute

[honeylady]

5. Pet peeve of mine.

No apostrophes, poor grammar, misspellings. People are just getting lazy when it comes to typing. i think it results from texting.

[mfcorey1]

23. That is so true. I am guilty of using grammatical shortcuts when I am texting or even replying to

a post on this site. As log as there is no physical damage to anyone, the habit will continue. I will save my apostrophes and its cousins for formal writings.

[StarryNite]

58. Not capitalizing "I" could be attributed to people...

being too lazy to use the 'shift' key. I'm with you, I think a lot of it is due to texting.

[WinkyDink]

7. Where have the apostrophes gone, long time passing? Where have the apostrophes gone, long time

ago?

Where have the apostrophes gone,
Posters drop them, one by one!
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

[Me.]

11. !

[tazkcmo]

16. Author! Author!

Bravo!

[leftstreet]

43. LOL

[Iggo]

12. Missing from subject lines in OPs post-hack.

On purpose.

[Me.]

19. What Does That Mean

[csziggy]

45. See the message in the Announcements

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10138421

As part of protection against hacks they have turned off HTML so formatting is pretty much gone.

[Me.]

57. Ah Ha

Now that makes sense

[demmiblue]

22. Yep. For example, I posted the following earlier:

Confused 5-Year-Old To Her Mother — “Where did Barack Obama go?”

It came out like this:

Confused 5-Year-Old To Her Mother Where did Barack Obama go?

[NoWheyJose]

14. Their getting sloppy with spelling and grammar . . .

. . . but its no big deal, really.

[LanternWaste]

27. There's my daily dose of irony!

There's my daily dose of irony!

[NoWheyJose]

61. And theirs my daily dose of irony!

; )

[Act_of_Reparation]

17. Maybe look next to the colon.

[WinkyDink]

33. I see what you did there. :-P

[jberryhill]

18. It's at the crux of the biscuit

https://www.dweezilzappa.com/posts/1963441-the-crux-of-the-biscuit-is-the-apostrophe

...the particular passage which is being referred to happens on the the end of 'stinkfoot', and takes place in the context of a man having a conversation with his dog.

the dog asks the man, what is his conceptual continuity.

so the dog is posing a philosophical question to the man about what the man thinks the nature of reality is, or at least his understanding of it.

the dog is basically asking, what is reality?

well, what is an apostrophe?

an apostrophe is a symbol. its an idea. and what is anything else for that matter? what am i to you, but an idea within your mind.

and so, the apostrophe, being a symbol of defined purpose but undefined potential, becomes a more accurate symbol to represent whatever we currently call 'reality'.

basically saying that the crux of the 'biscuit', i.e. reality itself, is more accurately represented by a symbol such as an 'apostrophe'.

meaning... words are limited, language is limited...

ideas and concepts are limitless...

the apostrophe is a symbol that represents something that is not clearly defined.

i mean, if you find an apostrophe inside of a word, you know that it means 'symbol for conjoining two words together' or 'symbol to represent plurality, or ownership'... and that makes well enough sense.

but say you have an apostrophe out on the page by itself... what does it mean then?

it is a vague symbol that can mean anything...and it does.

being able to move beyond that and see, that what binds reality together is something that goes beyond conventional comprehension.

just try to imagine what an apostrophe means by itself. ----> ' <----

(an apostrophe, out of context)

basically, the apostrophe by itself goes beyond logic. it still means SOMETHING, but without context, it is impossible to define.

it is only within the CONTEXT of language can the purpose of the apostrophe be understood and decoded.

the way we observe things and learn about reality is by looking at context. our understanding of everything is based on the context in which it is being observed.

basically, an apostrophe is dependent upon context to be understood... but an apostrophe is not dependent upon context to EXIST.

and reality is the same way... reality is dependant upon context in order to be understood, but it is not dependent upon context in order to EXIST.

and so, in this way, the apostrophe is an accurate symbol for whatever we might call this existence...

...and so, the crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe.

[Me.]

20. Who Woulda Thought?

[hatrack]

21. They migrated to the ends of words that don't need them (on advertising signs):

Pick Your Own Strawberry's!

Lawson's Nursery - Sale On Apple Tree's!

26 Different Kinds Of Pie's!

Now Open Sunday's!

[Me.]

28. There You Go

They found a new home

[Blaukraut]

55. This! Migration to plural form!

[missingthebigdog]

83. Absolutely!

There is a used appliance store near us that has words painted on the windows:

Washer's!
Dryer's!
Refrigerator's!
Stove's!

As if each window belongs to a specific appliance.

[angstlessk]

24. I notice it mostly when they leave it out of 'he will'

[elfin]

25. Look for it sprinkled like glitter

on texts or essays by people who don't know where it should belong, so scatter it throughout.

[jberryhill]

31. Dutch vowel-hoarding caused the Czech Republic to seize them to to ease their vowel shortage

Reportedly, the towns of Leeuwarden of Roosendaal are negotiating directly with Brno and Krnov.

[hatrack]

36. Clinton Deploys Vowels To Bosnia (Onion)

Cities of Sjlbvdnzv, Grzny to Be First Recipients

Before an emergency joint session of Congress yesterday, President Clinton announced US plans to deploy over 75,000 vowels to the war-torn region of Bosnia. The deployment, the largest of its kind in American history, will provide the region with the critically needed letters A,E,I,O and U, and is hoped to render countless Bosnian names more pronounceable.

"For six years, we have stood by while names like Ygrjvslhv and Tzlynhr and Glrm have been horribly butchered by millions around the world," Clinton said. "Today, the United States must finally stand up and say 'Enough.' It is time the people of Bosnia finally had some vowels in their incomprehensible words. The US is proud to lead the crusade in this noble endeavour."

The deployment, dubbed Operation Vowel Storm by the State Department, is set for early next week, with the Adriatic port cities of Sjlbvdnzv and Grzny slated to be the first recipients. Two C-130 transport planes, each carrying over 500 24-count boxes of "E's," will fly from Andrews Air Force Base across the Atlantic and airdrop the letters over the cities.

Citizens of Grzny and Sjlbvdnzv eagerly await the arrival of the vowels. "My God, I do not think we can last another day," Trszg Grzdnjkln, 44, said. "I have six children and none of them has a name that is understandable to me or to anyone else. Mr. Clinton, please send my poor, wretched family just one 'E.' Please."

Said Sjlbvdnzv resident Grg Hmphrs, 67: "With just a few key letters, I could be George Humphries. This is my dream."

The airdrop represents the largest deployment of any letter to a foreign country since 1984. During the summer of that year, the US shipped 92,000 consonants to Ethiopia, providing cities like Ouaouoaua, Eaoiiuae, and Aao with vital, life-giving supplies of L's, S's and T's.

[jberryhill]

39. Ah, well, there you are

But, seriously, they could simply make do with enough apostrophes.

[Me.]

46. OMG, This Calls For An Investigation

[mfcorey1]

32. The apostrophe

Apostrophe

Think High Hook
when you look at me.
Then see my versatility.
Taking two words,
I'll make a subtraction,
and you'll have one word.
It's called a contraction.

I must confess
my strange obsession.
I join with "s" to show possession.
Now Nora can't claim Peter's poodles,
and Peter won't eat Nora's noodles.

Contract!
Possess!
Ah, yes, that's me!
I may look like a comma,
but I'm an apostrophe
by Bobbi Katz

[Me.]

38. Totally Fabulous

[cwydro]

34. I see it all the time - in the wrong places.

People simply cannot grasp the difference between it's and its.

[Me.]

42. Now That Is So True

And your & you're

[JHB]

35. Raptured in advance of the Apostrophclypse

[GeorgeGist]

37. Some smartphones and tablets make it clumsy to include apostrophes.

[NRaleighLiberal]

40. good grammar has been twittered, facebooked and cellphone/texted.

Old folks like me are quite sad about this - but...change is inevitable!

[Me.]

64. Sez Who

Old, that is.....?

[marylandblue]

41. The smartphone is killing it

I can't actually see it on my smartphone keyboard, I have to press the symbol shift button and hunt for it.I imagine this is an issue for many smaetphones, so people get lazy and just leave it out.

[politicat]

50. They've been shanghai'ed and dragooned into service as emphasizers.

You can see them Stockholm Syndroming through their days anywhere a passive-aggressive manager has decided to put of a sign.

as in ''Fresh'' Mangos 3/$1

Or

We ''Prosecute'' Shoplifters!! Your on ''Video'' and we call the ''Cops''!!! (Actual sign I've seen, quoted verbatim. I don't go to that company anymore.)

[Orsino]

51. It's busy being used to pluralize everything. n/t

[CK_John]

52. The apostrophe ( ) has three uses: contractions, plurals, and possessives.

Here it is:

http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/apostrophe.html

[Me.]

63. I Forgot About The S'

Though I use it

[kysrsoze]

53. All the stupid people used them up on plurals.

E.G. - "Trailer's for sale." That drives me nuts.

[Binkie The Clown]

62. Two things are always constant about language.

1) It's always changing.
2) The older generation is always complaining about the changes.

The English of the most educated, erudite person of today would horrify Shakespeare (whose English in turn would have horrified Chaucer).

[0rganism]

65. on a quest to find proofreading in the age of autocorrect

every household with a laundry dryer has a dimensional portal to the Planet of Lost Socks, i would check there first

[ananda]

66. It's interesting that ..

the apostrophe was never necessary.

In fact, both possessives and contractions did not use
apostrophes originally.

[Me.]

68. Did Not KNow That

When did it start?

[arthritisR_US]

67. I think it's obvious, to the bowels of hell. nt

[MineralMan]

69. There is only a limited supply. Sadly,

too many are being used incorrectly in plural word forms, so those who are using them correctly don't have enough left to punctuate their writings.

[doc03]

70. I have to change to the numerical keyboard

to put in an apostrophe on my tablet.

[Amaryllis]

71. When you post a thread title, it eliminates them. I always have to click edit and add them back in

after I post. It seems to be a DU thing.

[hunter]

75. Testin' and testin'

Looks okay to me.

Must be something to do with "smart" shit.

[Me.]

86. Looks OK To Me Too

[BigmanPigman]

77. I thought it was just my stupid samsung tablet that did this.

[Amaryllis]

78. IF it's your tablet, it's also my desktop PC. Posting cuts apotrophes out of the title.

[LeftInTX]

76. It's a pain to use on my phone

I'm posting from my computer right now.

[Denzil_DC]

79. If you paste in text from another site,

it may include "turned quotes" rather than the straight ones you can access directly from your keyboard. These currently get stripped out of subject lines (and sometimes posts - seems unpredictable) by the forum software.

[CozyMystery]

82. The apostrophe is in a comma.

Because its condition has been (un)gramatically induced, we are hopeful that it will come out of the comma soon.

[Me.]

85. Welcome

[flamingdem]

84. The apostrophe is getting a colonoscopy

ouch!

[eleny]

88. i bet you've been waiting to use that one for years!!!

........... ............

[Make7]

89. It has to do with the election day hack.

There were quite a few questions about missing characters in the Ask the Administrators forum. For example:

I was unable to include a dollar sign in my thread title.
New Apostrophe Bug
Why now are non-ASCII characters filtered out of post titles?
Whats happening to apostrophes?

Quick explanation: to prevent someone from exploiting the same hole as the election day hacker(s), the Admins had the software strip out some punctuation/special characters from post titles and message text. Since then I think most (if not all) of them are allowed in messages, but some characters are still removed if used in thread/reply titles. Off the top of my head, the list would include the following:

<, >, =, \, curly quotes and apostrophes (straight ones typed from a keyboard work fine), accent characters (letter with diacritical marks). If you really need/want to use special characters in post titles, you can use html entities. For example:

&lt; &gt; &#x3D; &#x5C; &ldquo; &rdquo; &lsquo; &lsquo; &agrave; &eacute; &ouml;

Pretty much any character can be used by using its unicode number ( &#xNNNN; &lsqb;replace NNNN with number]). However, previewing html entities turns them into the actual characters so you have to use your browser's back button to post your message with any html entities used in the title (and/or message) intact.

[Me.]

90. Hmmmm

Very helpful to know

[AgadorSparticus]

92. I am waiting for the first genius to come out with a smart phone that doesn't have autocorrect

People would flock to it in droves! I know i would. I am tired of misspelled words.

[Me.]

93. !

[ornotna]

98. Can't you just turn the autocorrect off?

I can do that on my phone.

[AgadorSparticus]

100. I tried before but couldn't do it so i gave up. But that was 2 phones ago.

I will try again.

[Bucky]

94. It piss's me of to think how apostrophe's have been abuse

[Me.]

96. Adding Insult To Injury

There is no one we can sue about this

[boston bean]

97. It's not on the first screen on the key pad for an iphone... many times I am too lazy to use it.

[milestogo]

99. People are used to having autocorrect do it for them.

[samnsara]

101. i hunt and peck when i type so i dont capitalize either...

..also I use twitter a lot so learned to leave all that fluff out.

[Me.]

102. Due Respect

Don't consider correct grammar fluff

[lunasun]

103. for something like posting here ( as opposed to a formal business letter) i am just too lazy

of course i know the difference between its and its and figure the reader also knows the difference when reading
sorry
just one of the ways i conserve energy. I am often multitasking when posting and low priority

[GoCubsGo]

105. It went off to screw up plural words.

Dog's and cat's living together.

[Me.]

106. +1

[Tribalceltic]

108. I need help...

I cannot find the apostrophe on my rotary phone.

[Me.]

109. I Can't Find My Rotary Phone

so I guess we're even

[eppur_se_muova]

110. Why is this thread missing this cartoon ?

[Me.]

111. HILARIOUS!

And you can't imagine my surprise when this thread popped up.

Thanks for the toon and laugh.