Correct Punctuation

[Texfield]

Your best friend on the bookshelf should be Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss.
The bible for grammar national socialists :eeek:

 

[Stanley Doble]

Simple. An apostrophe indicates POSSESSION or ELLIPSIS.

Possession: Joe's hat, indicates Joe has a hat. Joe's hats, Joe has more than one hat.

The boys' tent, indicates more than one boy share a tent. Boys' tents, more than one boy and more than one tent.

Ellipsis means you left out some letters. I will becomes I'll. Can not becomes can't. The apostrophe goes in place of the missing letters.

There is one weird one. Have you seen a sign on someone's lawn, The McGregor's or the like? This used to annoy me because it is obviously wrong. If the sign indicates that The McGregors live there, it should say The McGregors, no apostrophe.

The only way this could be correct is if it is the home of a clan chieftain, known as The McGregor of the McGregors. In that case The McGregor's would indicate that this home belongs to The McGregor.

Other than that, leave off the apostrophe.