A new year is upon us, and with it comes the answer to that burning question that invariably crops up around this time: Is it New Years Day, New Year’s Day or New Years’ Day? It’s New Year’s Day, but attempts to explain why can generate even more questions.
Topics: possessives, apostrophe
Have you ever wanted to look up how to spell a word but couldn’t find it because you didn’t know how to spell it? That’s the same kind of problem many people have with this week’s topic: using possessives with gerunds. When you don’t know what to call the terms, how can you easily find guidance related to them?
Topics: possessives, gerunds
Reflexive Pronouns Crowned Tourney Champ
Beating back the persistent Plurals/Possessives in overtime, Reflexive Pronouns narrowly won our April Aggravations tourney. Both had advanced to the final round after Plurals handily beat One Word or Two, and Reflexive edged the upstart Misplaced Modifiers in the Final Four.
We couldn’t have asked for a more exciting championship, as the two teams traded the lead throughout both regulation and overtime. But a last-minute surge by Plurals/Possessive’s fell short, and Reflexive Pronouns itself emerged victorious.
Topics: homonyms, possessives, pronouns, grammatical errors, reflexive pronouns, collective noun, plurals, government-related words
March Madness refers to the excitement, fervor and general craziness surrounding the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, during which upsets, buzzer beaters and rowdy celebrations are the norm. That all ended Monday night with Duke edging Wisconsin to claim its fifth national championship. Or did it?
For those who simply can’t wait another year, we offer our own version of the playoffs, with a grammatical twist: April Aggravations. Below you’ll find our Elite Eight list of contenders competing for the coveted title of “Most Annoying Grammatical Error Ever,” collected from our editors here at ProofreadNOW.com.
Let us know in the comments below which ones you’d send to the Final Four, which two will end up competing for the championship and, finally, which error will win it all as “most annoying.” We’ll crown the winning pet peeve in next week’s post. Also let us know about others that grate on your nerves, and we’ll add them to the pool of contenders for our next grammatical error playoff.
Topics: homonyms, possessives, pronouns, grammatical errors, plurals
Topics: possessives, punctuation, grammar
Last week, we gave you some general rules on possessives. This week, let's focus on possessives of proper nouns.
Topics: possessives of proper nouns, possessive form, possessives
Here are some examples of when the letter s is added to a possessive form.
Nouns plural in form, singular in meaning. When the singular form of a noun ending in s looks like a plural and the plural form is the same as the singular, the possessive of both singular and plural is formed by the addition of an apostrophe only. If ambiguity threatens, use of to avoid the possessive.
Topics: possessive form, possessives
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