Anonymous
Post 06/10/2026 00:57     Subject: Re:PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes

I'm now wondering when and how the possessive apostrophe got started to begin with. I know that 250 years ago there was much less consistency in how people wrote things, even those who were well educated.
Anonymous
Post 06/10/2026 00:27     Subject: PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes

Anonymous wrote:Also group of people with the same last name does not have an apostrophe.

“The Joneses and Smiths are coming for dinner.”

Your holiday card will also not have an apostrophe.

“Merry Christmas! Love, the Wiltons”


You’re absolutely right, and I unashamedly share your pedantry.
Here’s one for you.
What about a sign saying “The Smith’s”
posted outside a house?
If the Smiths are identifying themselves as the family living there, it’s clearly incorrect.
However, what if the Smith family is actually identifying the house as theirs? The “house” is implied and unwritten, much like the Understood You in an imperative sentence, i.e., The Smith’s (House).
Do we let them slide??
Anonymous
Post 06/09/2026 21:49     Subject: Re:PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why does autocorrect get it wrong so many times?


Yes! It's often changing "its" to "it's," and I have to change it back.



What's the difference? And who cares except the OP?


Its is a possessive pronoun. It's is a contraction for it is.


+1. People confuse "whose" with "who's" often as well.

The lion injured its paw.
It's time for dinner.

Whose slipper is this?
Who's calling me at this hour?


All you have to do is write out it’s to “it is”. “The lion injured it is paw”. Doesn’t make sense so it has to be its.

Same with “who’s” which an abbreviation for “who is”. “ Who is slipper is this” doesn’t make sense.

Same with you’re and your, were and we”re and other words that are contractions. Contractions are just two words merged
Anonymous
Post 06/09/2026 21:01     Subject: Re:PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes

Anonymous wrote:Gramatik Macht Frei.


Grammatik macht frei.

Anonymous
Post 06/09/2026 20:12     Subject: Re:PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes

Gramatik Macht Frei.
Anonymous
Post 06/09/2026 19:57     Subject: PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes

r u ok?
touch grass
or maybe grass's
Anonymous
Post 06/09/2026 19:08     Subject: Re:PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why does autocorrect get it wrong so many times?


Yes! It's often changing "its" to "it's," and I have to change it back.

You actually care to proofread your writing. That value and skill is dying.


no one cares.
Anonymous
Post 06/09/2026 17:52     Subject: Re:PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why does autocorrect get it wrong so many times?


Funny you should mention this. I've been convinced for a long that the apostrophe plague on society was brought on by the invention of the iphone. Ever since the first one I had back in 2008, I noticed it didn't know words like a PP's example of nannies vs nanny's. I truly believe the accumulation of decades of the iphone "teaching" this incorrectly has brought us to the apostrophe overuse crisis we're in today.


It was trained by the corpus of the user's.
Anonymous
Post 06/09/2026 17:50     Subject: Re:PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes

Anonymous wrote:Why does autocorrect get it wrong so many times?


Funny you should mention this. I've been convinced for a long that the apostrophe plague on society was brought on by the invention of the iphone. Ever since the first one I had back in 2008, I noticed it didn't know words like a PP's example of nannies vs nanny's. I truly believe the accumulation of decades of the iphone "teaching" this incorrectly has brought us to the apostrophe overuse crisis we're in today.
Anonymous
Post 06/09/2026 17:38     Subject: PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes

Anonymous wrote:These types of thread’s are so annoying.


I agree. This is a casual public message board. Write to get your point across and ignore the minor autocorrect errors that happen.
Anonymous
Post 06/09/2026 10:36     Subject: PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes


Except when you use the possessive of the plural.


Anonymous
Post 06/09/2026 10:31     Subject: Re:PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why does autocorrect get it wrong so many times?


Yes! It's often changing "its" to "it's," and I have to change it back.


My autocorrect on my phone does insane things. For instance, back when I was in the thick of under-5 childcare, I discovered my phone hates the word "nannies" and will correct it every time to "Nanny's". How does my phone not understand the plural form of the word nanny, or that it's most commonly used as a job title, not a first name? Is my phone Irish?

Anyway, this is why complaining about typos like that on DCUM makes no sense. I frequently post comments on here riddled with typos because I am dashing something off on my phone without proofreading and it's a dumb little machine.


My phone often autocorrects the word "any" (even when that is the word I intended to write) to the name Amy. I do know a couple Amys but I don't interact with them often -- just very occasional texts. So it's not like my daughter's name or something where you could understand why my phone might assume I meant to write the name.

It also will autofill the name Thea when I write "the" sometimes. My daughter does have a friend with this name so I do type it with some frequency but also it's very strange for a program to see the letters t-h-e and to assume the writer intended anything other than one of the most common words in the English language.

My phone does this every single time when I text! “The” becomes “Theo”, “he” or “her” becomes “Heather”, and “that” becomes “Thatcher”. I know people with these names but only text them a few times a year. It dives me bonkers.


My phone likes to change the word back to the word BDSM. Thankfully, I've caught it every time so far.

Oh dear—bad phone!
Anonymous
Post 06/09/2026 10:29     Subject: PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes

thank's
Anonymous
Post 06/09/2026 10:21     Subject: Re:PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why does autocorrect get it wrong so many times?


Yes! It's often changing "its" to "it's," and I have to change it back.



What's the difference? And who cares except the OP?


Its is a possessive pronoun. It's is a contraction for it is.


+1. People confuse "whose" with "who's" often as well.

The lion injured its paw.
It's time for dinner.

Whose slipper is this?
Who's calling me at this hour?
Anonymous
Post 06/09/2026 10:03     Subject: Re:PSA: plural words don’t have apostrophes

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why does autocorrect get it wrong so many times?


Yes! It's often changing "its" to "it's," and I have to change it back.


My autocorrect on my phone does insane things. For instance, back when I was in the thick of under-5 childcare, I discovered my phone hates the word "nannies" and will correct it every time to "Nanny's". How does my phone not understand the plural form of the word nanny, or that it's most commonly used as a job title, not a first name? Is my phone Irish?

Anyway, this is why complaining about typos like that on DCUM makes no sense. I frequently post comments on here riddled with typos because I am dashing something off on my phone without proofreading and it's a dumb little machine.


My phone often autocorrects the word "any" (even when that is the word I intended to write) to the name Amy. I do know a couple Amys but I don't interact with them often -- just very occasional texts. So it's not like my daughter's name or something where you could understand why my phone might assume I meant to write the name.

It also will autofill the name Thea when I write "the" sometimes. My daughter does have a friend with this name so I do type it with some frequency but also it's very strange for a program to see the letters t-h-e and to assume the writer intended anything other than one of the most common words in the English language.

My phone does this every single time when I text! “The” becomes “Theo”, “he” or “her” becomes “Heather”, and “that” becomes “Thatcher”. I know people with these names but only text them a few times a year. It dives me bonkers.


My phone likes to change the word back to the word BDSM. Thankfully, I've caught it every time so far.