"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...



I get my chops busted if I write with say last year's work instead of
last years work.

- 73 de Mike KB3EIA -


1. Too bad you have to work for/with people like that. " ... last year's
work" is correct. The possessive does not exclusively denote ownership. It
also denotes the "of or pertaining to" relationship, as in "Cleveland's bus
system."

2. I just went to the McGraw-Hill Learning Center

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/site.../chapter1/apos
trophes.html

and took their apostrophe quiz

Results Reporter
Out of 17 questions, you answered 17 correctly, for a final grade of 100%.

17 correct (100%)
0 incorrect (0%)
0 unanswered (0%)

Here's the most interesting one:

Last years womens softball team is much better than this years. [The stem
omits apostrophes.]

C) Last year's women's softball team is much better than this year's.
Feedback: Correct!

3. Despite the absolute correctness of the apostrophe for the plural of
numbers and letters, I see a lot of acronyms and abbreviations made plural
by the addition of an "s" without the apostrophe and I don't flinch. I
think the language is evolving regarding acronyms, which, after all, are
less than 100 years old. Therefore, I vote to accept "SWRs."

73,
"Sal"
(KD6VKW)

Sal M. Onella wrote:
3. Despite the absolute correctness of the apostrophe for the plural of
numbers and letters, I see a lot of acronyms and abbreviations made plural
by the addition of an "s" without the apostrophe and I don't flinch.

From what I remember, that's not universally incorrect.

Oh, and I'm taking your apostrophe quiz, and it appears there's an error
in the "correct" choice: (B) uses "its" as the contraction for "it is".
So the answer to 17 should be "None of the above". (I scored 100% also.)

Incidental note: I've never understood how people who use "it's" as a
possessive never even think to use "hi's" (though some use "her's" and
"their's").

--
Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics
http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm

clifto wrote:
I've never understood how people who use "it's" as a
possessive never even think to use "hi's"

I usually send two hi's. .... .. .... ..
--
73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp

"clifto" wrote in message
...
Incidental note: I've never understood how people who use "it's" as a
possessive never even think to use "hi's" (though some use "her's" and
"their's").

Yup, me too. I listen to "A Way With Words," a radio program on KPBS
(available streaming at kpbs.org) whose host is language writer Richard
Lederer ("Anguished English," "Get Thee To A Punnery," etc). Richard said
that "it's" for "its" (possessive) was considered correct until near the end
of the 19th century. I didn't know that.

On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 21:50:57 -0700, "Sal M. Onella"
wrote:


"clifto" wrote in message
...
Incidental note: I've never understood how people who use "it's" as a
possessive never even think to use "hi's" (though some use "her's" and
"their's").

Yup, me too. I listen to "A Way With Words," a radio program on KPBS
(available streaming at kpbs.org) whose host is language writer Richard
Lederer ("Anguished English," "Get Thee To A Punnery," etc). Richard said
that "it's" for "its" (possessive) was considered correct until near the end
of the 19th century. I didn't know that.

That's as bad as using entitled. Michigan Tech voted that as one of
the 10 words that should be eliminated in one of their yearly
selections.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com.