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Welcome to this, our permanent APS web site
location, at:
www.apostrophe.org.uk
This Domain Name is our permanent address now.
Please update your Bookmarks if necessary.
The Apostrophe Protection Society
23 Vauxhall Road, Boston, Lincs. PE21 0JB
United Kingdom
Email enquiries: chairman@apostrophe.org.uk
The Apostrophe Protection Society was started in 2001 by John Richards, now
its Chairman, with the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this
currently much abused punctuation mark in all forms of text written in the
English language.
The rules concerning the use of apostrophes in written English are very
simple:
1. They are used to denote a missing letter or letters, for example:
 | I can't instead of I cannot |
| I don't instead of I do not |
| it's instead of it is |
2. They are used to denote possession, for example:
| the dog's bone |
| the company's logo |
| Jones's bakery (but Joneses' bakery if owned by more than one
Jones) |
... but please note that its, which is usually used as a possessive
adjective (like our, his etc), does not
take an apostrophe:
| the dog ate its bone and we ate our dinner |
... however, if there are two or more dogs, companies or Joneses in our example, the
apostrophe comes after the 's':
| the dogs' bones |
| the companies' logos |
| Joneses' bakeries |
3. Apostrophes are NEVER ever used to denote
plurals! Common examples of such abuse (all seen in real life!) are:
| Banana's for sale which of course should read Bananas for sale |
| Menu's printed to order which should read Menus printed to order |
| MOT's at this garage which should read MOTs at this garage |
| 1000's of bargains here! which should read 1000s of bargains
here! |
| New CD's just in! which should read New CDs just in! |
| Buy your Xmas tree's here! which should read Buy your Xmas trees
here! |
Note: Special care must be taken over the use of your
and you're as they sound the same but are used quite differently:
your is possessive as in this is your pen
you're is short for you are as in you're coming
over to my house
We are aware of the way the English language is evolving during use, and do
not intend any direct criticism of those who have made the mistakes above.
We are just reminding all writers of English text, whether on notices or in
documents of any type, of the correct usage of the apostrophe should you wish to
put right mistakes you may have inadvertently made.
On our Examples pages you will see pictures of
real-life apostrophe abuse, many of which have been submitted by visitors to this site.
We accept submissions on the understanding that there are no copyright
limitations. Go to the Main Examples
page to see how to send yours to us. Please ensure photo file sizes
are no larger than 250Kb - we no longer accept camera originals - and are in jpg
format. Images, which may be cropped and further reduced in size by us, are uploaded in batches from time to time. Whenever possible,
names and phone numbers in the photos submitted will be made unidentifiable.
Sorry, but no credits or acknowledgements can be given.
Please place written examples of misuse of the apostrophe you have seen on our
very popular Message
Board for discussion. Contributors to this Forum willingly help others with
correct apostrophe use and there is also a section for Other English Language
Problems.
For general enquiries about the Apostrophe Protection Society, please
contact its Chairman by Email by clicking: chairman@apostrophe.org.uk
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Try this! |
Now CLICK
HERE for a fun way to check your knowledge
of apostrophe use! |
| Afterwards why not consolidate your knowledge HERE? |
NB: Both links
need Flash Player installed on your computer. Content is not from
the APS.
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Thank you for visiting ...
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Site started: June 2001
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Site last updated: 15 January 2012
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Task: |
Updates to Home &
Examples pages |
© Copyright 2001-2012 The Apostrophe Protection
Society and Floating Lily Designs, Dorset, UK
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