The Catastrophic Apostrophe

First things first. I do not pretend to be an English expert, nor do I proclaim myself as a great exponent of English grammar. In fact, you will be able to find several grammatical errors in this blog itself. But that is not the point.

Now that I have got the disclaimer out of my way, let me come to the point. The topic is as the title suggests – the apostrophe. I believe it must be the most misused punctuation in English language. I am tired of seeing it misused in official mails, personal mails discussion forums, blogs, TV channels and just about everywhere. Hence, I have decided to raise, well…not a tirade but at least a small voice of discontent about the same via my blog.

The usage of apostrophe that bugs me the most is when it is used for forming plurals. For example, I have increasingly seen people make use of boy’s in place of boys; ignorant of the fact that both give entirely different meanings.

Another confusion is one that arises with the usage of it’s and its. People seem to ignore the fact that it’s is used to denote it is and its is used to denote possession. The proper usage is well documented here.

I will just point to one more maddening usage of the apostrophe. This is when using your instead of you’re. I fail to understand how sentences like “Your the only one” are supposed to convey the meaning they are intended to.

It really looks like an aggressive awareness campaign is to be conducted to save poor old apostrophe. While I was browsing the web about the inappropriate usage of apostrophe, I was pleasantly surprised to see the website of the Apostrophe Protection Society. It also provides some examples of misuse of the punctuation mark in real life.

Friends, let's all strive to avoid the misuse of the apostrophe.