There are two reasons for the following punctuation missive. The first is because teaching grammar and punctuation at the local university was my speciality, and the second is because, a few posts ago, I replied to a comment with the sentence “It’s the alpaca’s drinking trough” when I was talking about two Alpacas, not one.
I am very embarrassed now about this appalling punctuation error!
The apostrophe is that punctuation mark (like a comma that has had too much coffee, so keeps raising its eyebrow) that indicates either ownership or plurals. For example:
- Ownership: “The Alpaca’s face was beautiful” (we are talking about one Alpaca here).
- Plurals: “This is the Alpacas’ drinking trough” OR “This is the Alpacas’s drinking trough” (we are talking about two Alpacas here).
I hope you found this post exhilarating! Here are a few apostrophes to make your day ”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
Okami and Uluru (pictured above) just don’t seem to really care – mmmm!~
jmgoyder 
thank you for that Julie, good to see you haven’t lost your touch!
Not sure about that! I think I might be making lots of prepositional, capitalization, and other errors – argh!
And I just corrected yet another error in a post about errors – I guess I need to come back to work – ha!
A kookaburra story with a few apostrophes!
On a warm summer’s day, two relaxed golfers in their motorised cart were happily trundling down a tree lined fairway. Suddenly a kookaburra shaking a 2metre long snake, landed on the roof of the cart. A few centimetres from the golfer’s head the fighting snake twisted around the strut supporting the roof. Adrenalin kicked in and the golfers flung themselves out of the cart. The battle raged between the kookaburra and the snake. In one moment the kookaburra had the upper hand shaking the snake from side to side; next the snake appeared to be strangling the kookaburra. Meanwhile a shaken golfer tentatively reached to his golf bag and quickly retrieved a golf club. He struck the snake which slithered down between the golf bags onto the ground and under the cart. The dishevelled kookaburra made a hasty retreat to the safety of a nearby Tuart tree. The golfer using the golf club stretched to press the accelerator of the cart. It lurched forward exposing the snake. In a flash the tenacious kookaburra swooped down and once again retrieved the unfortunate snake which was last seen being bashed against the bow of a tree. The golfers took a deep breath and continued on with their game.
What a story! How are you? Long time!
I used to proof read important office memos, correspondence and reports in my working life, now I get the computer to proof read ME in my retirement home life – I’m not sure that it’s doing a very good job though – I spend half the following day editing posts I wrote and uploaded the night before.
I just claim that I’m having a ‘senior’ moment and everyone understands completely.
I know ‘senior’ does not refer to you, but you can borrow the phrase if you like..
Funny you! I just had a birthday so am feeling very seniorish!
All is forgiven. To err is human. I should know I am the biggest human on the face of the planet. 🙂
I appreeshieight yr forgivnes’ hehe!
Haha – !’,&@()$&#… to punctuation (and Apple gadgets’ (or should that be gadgets’s :-D) inappropriate autocorrects
ha!