Originally Posted By Mr X Okay so I was asked by a Japanese person to explain some points of grammar to me today, and I had no clue... So, I thought I'd open it up for discussion. He asked "what is the difference between NO apostrophe, an apostrophe BEFORE the "s", and an apostrophe AFTER the "s". My uneducated (in this case DEFINITELY) reply was no apostrophe means "plural", and before the "s" means "such and such IS", and after the "s" I couldn't quite explain... SO, you can see how pitiful my answer was. Any help? I have more questions (from the same friend), but I thought I'd start with this one and maybe start a "proper grammar" thread...
Originally Posted By jonvn An apostrophe can mean a contraction, such as "it's," which means it is. Or in "don't" which means do not. Or it can be possessive, such as "Jim's," which means "belongs to Jim." But there is an exception, when you write "it's," that ALWAYS means IT IS. Do say the possessive of something that belongs to it, you say "its." ALWAYS. You put an apostrophe after a word that ends in an S sound to indicate possessive. For example, if you wanted to use the possessive for boys, you would use boys', and not boy's. It NEVER means a plural. It is not an indicator warning: Look out an S is coming! You don't say: "Try our hot dog's" That statement then means that you should try their hot dog's something or other. But the sentence is incomplete. That's how you use it.
Originally Posted By jonvn Actually, to add one thing about the its/it's thing. It's not just its. Any personal pronoun (me, you, them it, her, etc.) does not use the apostrophe. So you also don't use it for "yours." In these cases, it's: yours and its. His, and hers.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice Good stuff, Jon... My pet peeve is the misuse of apostrophes in business signage and TV advertisements. If the person running things doesn't get it, he/she should hire or rent some help. And to add to the mix... When referring to a particular decade, the proper use is '60s or 1960s... no apostrophe before the "s."
Originally Posted By sun-n-fun Since my last name ends in an s, people almost always put and 's after it to show something is mine. Then when they pronounce it they say the s sound 2 or 3 times. For a math teacher who is not the best writer or grammer person, that annoys me.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Also, you'd put an apostrophe after the "s" in sun-n-fun's example of a last name ending with s. If you were discussing Indiana Jones nearly losing his hat, you would write: Just before the ancient temple wall was sealed forever, Indiana Jones' fedora was snatched up by the famous archaeologist.
Originally Posted By Mr X Here's the next question... How do the "futures" work?? In other words "we project xxx for our company", or "we anticipate 100 times earnings", etc... My friend was asking about how all these "future" ideas work (in Japanese, they don't actually have a "future possible" idea...which maybe doesn't work in English either, it was just my idea lol). We "project" was another question...he wants to know if it's a noun or what? verb? expletive?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan If you are working on a specific project, that's a noun. If you want to project a movie, or project what next year's earnings might be, that's a verb. If you are stuck working ON THIS DAMN PROJECT FOR MY IDIOT BOSS, well, that's an interjection! ; )
Originally Posted By jonvn Japanese do not have "expectations?" Use the word "expect" for "project." How can they not have the concept of the future?? Is that why they can't come up with their own ideas, and just copy others?
Originally Posted By peeaanuut <a href="http://www.apostropheabuse.com/" target="_blank">http://www.apostropheabuse.com /</a>
Originally Posted By wonderingalice ^^Accckkk! *LOL* I'm particularly fond of the rather official-looking instructions for voters.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Maybe we can start another thread about the use of 'She and I' 'Me and my friends' 'Her and Me' and 'Myself' [when you don't know how to use it properly] I was in a seminar one time, and I guy said, 'If you have any questions, feel free to talk to Scott or I.' [it would be me...talk to Scott or me]
Originally Posted By christiemarsh88 How about this: <a href="http://imdb.com/media/rm2746261248/tt0313737" target="_blank">http://imdb.com/media/rm274626 1248/tt0313737</a> Look really closely at the title. How many people looked at this thing and approved it before they decided on the title?! Has anyone ever read "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves?" If not, you should definitely check it out.
Originally Posted By jonvn "Maybe we can start another thread about the use of 'She and I' 'Me and my friends' 'Her and Me' and 'Myself' [when you don't know how to use it properly]" OK, what you do is think how the phrase would be used if the "She and" part were not there. For example, you would not say: If you have any questions, feel free to talk to I. You would say: If you have any quesitons feel free to talk to me. So you would then say: If you have any questions feel free to talk to Scott or me. Further, you always leave yourself to be mentioned at the end. You do not say: Me and my sister went to Catholic school. You would say: I went to Catholic school. So the proper thing to say is: My sister and I went to Catholic school. The word "She" is the subjective case, "her" is the objective. You would use "she" when the girl is the subject of the sentence. She is going to the store. She has worn those same leggings six days in a row. Her is the objective (passive voice): Her leggings had to be removed with acetone. By the way, passive voice means to make the object of the sentence the subject. In the active voice the above sentence would be: Acetone was used to remove her leggings. When you replace a subjective pronoun with a word like this, then you use the subjective case: This is she. This is replaced by she, so you don't actually say "This is her." You should say "This is she." Typos and lazy writing admitted...
Originally Posted By jonvn Speaking of passive vs active voice, I just found this example. Active voice: Why did the chicken cross the road? Passive voice: Why was the road crossed by the chicken? You have a form of "To be" combined with a past participle (past tense verb usually ending in ED). That is going to generally mean passive voice.
Originally Posted By jonvn "Acetone was used to remove her leggings." This is not the best example. Since it's also passive. I believe this is active: Use acetone to remove her leggings.
Originally Posted By jonvn UGH! I managed to confuse myself. Here is a better example. Active: They boy hit the ball. Passive: The ball was hit by the boy. The reason you use passive voice is if the object of the thing you are talking about is more important than the subject, or the thing doing the action. So, what was hit? The object. The ball. Who did it? The subject, the boy. Flipped one way, the sentence is passive, the otherway, it's active. Most writing is done in active voice, as that's easier to understand. Both are gramatically correct.
