The vanishing apostrophe.

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Lately I've noticed that many A2Kers don't use apostrophes in their posts any more. I'm interested to know why. Is it now considered OK not to use apostrophes at all in some countries? And is apostrophe usage still taught & expected in students' writing in schools in your country? (Still is in Oz.)
Just curious.

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Eh?

(Examples, maybe?)

"Texting" has influenced writing in these sorts of situations -- everything as brief as possible. So could be what you're referring to, but it seems like you're saying people who used to use apostrophes no longer are...?

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As far as I know, apostrophes are not optional. I may not always use them correctly, but they are still in use. I think a lot of our younger generation uses "internet writing" which apparently requires very little in the way of punctuation and spelling.

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I'm saying I'm noticing they're used a lot less, soz.
That's interesting to me.
Yes, I suspect that texting & emails could have played some part in this.
To me, apostrophes help clarify the meaning of a writer's words. (Just one example: The student's participation, say, means something different to the students' participation. - singular & plural meanings.)

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Of course.

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FreeDuck wrote:

As far as I know, apostrophes are not optional. I may not always use them correctly, but they are still in use. I think a lot of our younger generation uses "internet writing" which apparently requires very little in the way of punctuation and spelling.

Ah, I see. I was thinking it was some sort of fairly recent development or trend in written expression. Commas appear to be used less as well ....

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evrytng is used less cuz the pt is to make it short n easy to read.

Worldwide phenomenon, not just the US, at all.

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Regarding (secondary) students' writing: Although not an English teacher (& despite not being a perfect writer, myself!) I spend a lot of time correcting apostrophe usage, (or lack of), or confusion with particular words in students' writing: e.g. there, their, they're ... often it seems that students will just take pot luck with any one of the choices, despite the context. Maybe apostrophes are avoided because of this sort of confusion?

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sozobe wrote:

evrytng is used less cuz the pt is to make it short n easy to read.

Worldwide phenomenon, not just the US, at all.

Oh, I don't think I said it was a US phenomenon. I was talking about here, at A2K. Most posters don't post in that sort of text shorhand.

It's no big deal. though. Like I said, I was just interested ....

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Some literary writing shows less use of commas than in days of yore, so I think comma choices may be done from creative selectivity as well as possible internet shorthand or grammar confusion.

On apostrophes: heh, I apparently nearly waylaid a thread with a comment on my own mis-apostrophizing recently. I must temper my mutterings or, better, learn to be more precise about them.

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Ah, OK. There seemed to be a "we teach it HERE, don't you?" thing going on.

Looks like it's a problem there, too.

I think it's an offshoot/ result of the texting even if people are not writing in full texting style at the time -- if they're used to not using apostrophes, even though they know they're supposed to while writing more "properly" they may not have as good of a feel for how it's supposed to go.

Definitely agree that it's an important piece of the written language puzzle.

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ossobuco wrote:

On apostrophes: heh, I apparently nearly waylaid a thread with a comment on my own mis-apostrophizing recently. I must temper my mutterings or learn to be more precise about them.

Goodness! Are you going to tell us how this one misplaced apostrophe almost achieved this end? Interesting!

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sozobe wrote:

Ah, OK. There seemed to be a "we teach it HERE, don't you?" thing going on.

Looks like it's a problem there, too.

Honestly not my intention to claim some sort of Oz superiority, soz. It was genuinely a question about what I thought (wrongly, it appears) was some sort of move away from apostrophe use. There are changes & adaptations in accepted language usage all the time. I thought I'd spotted one & was interested to know what others thought. That's all. Really.

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OK, thanks for clarifying, sorry if I was tetchy. ;-)

The apostrophe digression was funny! (It was an it's/ its thing that got WAY confusing...)

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sozobe wrote:

OK, thanks for clarifying, sorry if I was tetchy. ;-)

No problem. Very Happy

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Oh, shades of theravensrealm! Someone named Genteel, or something like that made a big issue of determining internet gender by flamboyant use of apostrophies. I thus decorated an entire paragraph, only to find out she? meant exclamation points.

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That's funny, roger!

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!!!!!!!

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Weeell, you are a feminine type, osso''''''.

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The vanishing apostrophe.

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