Re: not for illiterate,s

On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 15:10:26 +0000, Dennis L. McKiernan wrote:


Neither comma nor apostrophe, but instead plural without either:
"Illiterates."

Anybody know where the idea that all English plural nouns take an
apostrophe came from? I can understand homonym confusion; a spellchecker
will tell you that "their", "there" and "they're" are all correct, even
though two of them will be wrong for a given use. I can even understand
the "its"/"it's" fumble, since most possessives do take an apostrophe.
But why did people on Usenet (and Web boards) start sticking apostrophes
into nouns that have standard plural forms? It's even beginning to ooze
into print; I recently saw a sign that read "EMPLOYEE'S ONLY."
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: not for illiterate,s
    ... Anybody know where the idea that all English plural nouns take an ... apostrophe came from? ... a spellchecker ... Capt. Gym Z. Quirk quirk @ swcp.com ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: not for illiterate,s
    ... Anybody know where the idea that all English plural nouns take an ... apostrophe came from? ... I can understand homonym confusion; a spellchecker ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: not for illiterate,s
    ... Stephen Rush wrote: ... Anybody know where the idea that all English plural nouns take an ... I can understand homonym confusion; ... Because they were taught to put an apostrophe into the possessive ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: not for illiterate,s
    ... "Illiterates." ... I can understand homonym confusion; a spellchecker ... since most possessives do take an apostrophe. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: not for illiterate,s
    ... In article, Jon Schild ... Anybody know where the idea that all English plural nouns take an ... It's even beginning to ooze ... it comes from people who can't comprehend that the apostrophe means ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)