The crux of the biscuit
 

Iirc an apostrophe can show possessive if used after the s thusly: its'.

Or a contraction: it's.

And this applied to other words as well. However I have noticed spell check keeps warning me I'm wrong when I use it as a possessive like:

That is Bobabodes' whiskey, or, That is Tom Joads' 1911.

In both of those cases the names are underlined in red. Am I wrong?

Pete

Pete,
If a word/name end in the letter s then the apostrophe comes after the s when indicating possession. (As opposed to before the s if the word/name does not end in s)

Example; Russ is my brother. Russ' bedroom is always a mess. Marty is my other brother. And Marty's room is much cleaner.

I'm wondering if your auto correct function is considering the s to be the last letter in the name.

I am sure you all notice I do not use the function I sound the word out,I helped me in school and I won lots of spelling bees.I have become lazy though and with the vision almost gone anyway I just shoot it out there and Hope for the best.

"And Marty's room is much cleaner."

So this should NOT be:

"And Martys' room is much cleaner."?

Huh. Brain... fading... memory... gone... assumptions... wrong... http://smileys.smilchat.net/smiley/m...glyexplose.gif

Pete

Marty's room..... That is the correct way to indicate possession unless the person has a name that ends in the letter s. Then it is Russ' room.

IIRC, "Martys' " is plural possessive, two Martys live in the room.

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Ah so http://smileys.on-my-web.com/reposit...se-bow-005.gif

Thanks to both!

Pete

There is no such word usage as its'. The possessive form of it is its, and the contraction for "it is" is it's.

Regards,

D-Ray

This is a grey area of punctuation. Word nerds argue over it. Here's one discussion of it: http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/apo...s-ending-in-s/

Your really big mistake is assuming the spellchecker is an authority on punctuation. In this area, it probably is not able to, for example, tell common nouns from proper nouns, which in one rule that some apply. And it certainly is not able to tell what 'sounds right' when pronounced, which is another. And Martys singular and Martys plural can be distinguished only by context, and the spell checker can't do that.

I'm losing my mind. It shows how memory works, or doesn't!

Pete

I read that DQ, good gravy. I'm afraid my shirt pocket is sprouting protectors :D

Pete

I hope you didn't dive into the comments. You'd be sprouting protectors from every orifice!

I started but my face started breaking out in acne :p

Back in my machine maintenance days I wore them. My dad had a box full. I picked one for some out of state electric company, the logo was a hippo with a lightning bolt in its (:)) mouth.

Loved that thing.

Pete

It is mind over matter ,If you don't mind It don't Matter.

As I recall a further complication is that it is not mandatory to use the s-apostrophe when it follows a proper noun. For example, Jones's is a correct indication of possesion, but so is Jones'. But, when a proper noun ends with two ss, the apostrophe must follow the second s. Bess' shows possessive.

Now, I'm going to go put some tape on my horn-rimmed glasses.


Regards,

D-Ray

Yesterday I wrote at AK: "I appreciate it's correct spelling". Somebody wrote this is wrong, "its" is correct.

I asked my Oxford dictionary:

"Its" is a possessive pronoun, an attribute.

"It's" is a short form of "it is" or "it has".

Today AK member Tracy (and American living in Germany) remarked "its" in my case is correct.

Tracy's right!

Spell check seems to have issues with proper names as well as punctuation. It could be as much the name causing the red as the apostrophe (or a combination of both?).

Using this example, what is the plural of "it" if not "its"?
I find the possessive tense vs contracted "is" very confusing.

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This might help.

http://www.its-not-its.info/