Apostrophes

I'm beginning to remember why I never grasped this at school lol

I think so, VQ, though I might be a bit rusty!

Good use of the apostrophe, there jesssM.

bloody 'ell

So Lewis would be Lewis's but Louis would be Louis' ?

It used to be a rule (possibly still is) that names of classical or foreign origin ending in 's', would have the possessive apostrophe after the final 's'
Brutus' wife; Jules' mother etc.

Ana - so was my reply!
Yes, the cars of the parents of the children - the children's parents' cars.

Arrrrrgggggghhhhhhh so it's not Lewis' bike. So when does the apostrophe go at the end of the word.

The children's parents' cars. ?????????????????????????

I think we should do away with apostrophes and just use the context to work out the meaning.

Oh dear, it was a joke, Greatnan...

Gracesmum can use any name she likes!
Lewis's bike is correct, as is St. James's Palace.

And why is gracesmum not grace'smum for that matter?

Gracesmum's post just reminded me about the other thing apostrophes are used for.

Mike's bike.
Susan's bike.
Lewis' bike why not Lewis's bike. It would still sound out properly to read.

I hate apostrophes.

Words ending in vowel + y just add an s. Words ending in consonant plus y change y to ies. Monkey , monkeys. Duty, duties.

I was one of those people who thought the name would never catch on!

I've only just this second realised [this is looking at the word Monkees] that The Beatles were/was [or whatever] a reference to 'beat' [at least I assume they were]. That's taken me nearly fifity years to work out. I always wondered why they had such an awful name. I'm so slow on the uptake sometimes....

They were very wrong. in every way.

What about The Monkees? Was that wrong as well?

Def not "donkies" or "journies" So no journies to Bethlehem on donkies
Now, regarding apostrophes - could Gransnet HQ please tell me how to post that lovely English Teachers' Party Game cartoon they had on Facebook? Or please, pretty please, could you do it for me? It sums up the whole thing perfectly.

I always thought that "journey" should have the "y" taken away and replaced with "ies" to make the plural but my computer doesn't like "journies" (in fact it doesn't look right now!)

Donkey = donkies

Computer doesn't like this one either, now I'm more confused

gracesmum its made me

(Should that have read puppy's?)

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease let's not go down the apostrophe road again!! And as for all those poor puppies

There is some disagreement about the use of apostrophes in situations like "DVDs" - which is clearly a plural, but several letters have been missed out, so an apostrophe might be justifed on those grounds. Different editors do different things.

The rule with apostrophes is "If in doubt, leave it out" The trend now is to use fewer of them, so you will just look trendy. If you put one in just to be on the safe side, you have a 50/50 chance of being wrong.