it's hard to apostrophize 's' and I was just wondering if it's more right to say let's instead of lets. IMO it sounds better to just use 'lets' most of the time.
They aren't interchangeable and mean different things. Let's = let us. To let = to allow. 'She lets him into the house'.
When used correctly, an apostrophe denotes possession or omitted letters. For example, in "can't", the apostrophe stands in place of the letters 'n' and 'o'. In "Jon's" or "Chris's" the apostrophe lets us know we're talking about something that belongs to Jon or Chris. Alternatively, it might be a conjunction of "Jon is"/"Chris has" or something similar. As was said in the post above mine, "let's" is a conjunction of "let us". Think of "lets" in terms of the word "allows".
ditto that... so you can't properly use 'lets' most of the time, unless in every case, you mean 'allows' and not 'let us'... what annoys the bleep outa me is so many on writing sites using an apostrophe before the 's' to make a word plural!... i see it done frequently, in both thread titles and in posts...
I've heard that referred to as the Greengrocer's Apostrophe, because you so often see it in supermarket signs, e.g.
That is my worst habit. I do know the differences and rules associated with apostrophes, but when I'm in the zone, oh boy... that is the worst crime I commit.
Yeah, I see that all the time. But not just in shops... at the research company I work, even the highest of managers do that. For some reason if something is an abbreviation, they think it warrants an apostophe for the plural.
It is annoying. I can understand other types of typos, like forgetting a comma: but adding the grocer's apostrophe takes more effort, so I don't see how anyone can constantly do it while knowing that it's incorrect. Oh well.
A couple of years ago I'd been only one hour back in England when I went into the Newsagents wanting them to change a sign in the window: 'Holiday? Have you got you're EHIC card?'--leaving my kids outside on the pavement, pretending they didn't know me.
Well I can't speak for anyone else, but for me it stemmed from when I was younger and didn't know that apostrophes weren't meant to pluralize a word. While I knew an apostrophe was meant to take place of an omitted word and also to show possession, I also thought it was to pluralize, which was wrong. And so it's just habit. I've of course since learned and don't do it as often, but it still pops up every now and then. And actually, thinking about it, the only times now I notice when it happens is done more in particular with certain names. For example: Mathew Evans That name in particular always gets me. I always want to say something like "Evan's letter just came in the mail" instead of "Evans' letter just came in the mail." Doesn't really happen with other names or words ending with an 's' as much... but I have few that I always seem to do it with. Eh.. it's just a quirk.
Fighting ignorance is a losing battle. You're up against shrunken brains and oversized knuckles. They'll hurt you far more than you'll educate them.
I have heard the suggestion that the sole purpose of an apostrophe nowadays is to warn the reader that there is an "s" nearby.
