"A relaxation of official rules around the correct use of apostrophes in German has not only irritated grammar sticklers but triggered existential fears around the pervasive influence of English.Establishments that feature their owners’ names, with signs like “Rosi’s Bar” or “Kati’s Kiosk” are a common sight around German towns and cities, but strictly speaking they are wrong: unlike English, German does not traditionally use apostrophes to indicate the genitive case or possession. The correct spelling, therefore, would be “Rosis Bar”, “Katis Kiosk”, or, as in the title of a recent viral hit, Barbaras Rhabarberbar.However, guidelines issued by the body regulating the use of Standard High German orthography have clarified that the use of the punctuation mark colloquially known as the Deppenapostroph (“idiot’s apostrophe”) has become so widespread that it is permissible – as long as it separates the genitive ‘s’ within a proper name...The Deppenapostroph is not to be confused with the English greengrocer’s apostrophe, when an apostrophe before an ‘s’ is mistakenly used to form the plural of a noun (“a kilo of potato’s”)...Even before the rule clarification, the German orthographic council permitted the use of the possessive apostrophe for the sake of clarity, such as “Andrea’s Bar” to make clear that the owner is called Andrea and not Andreas."
More information at The Guardian.
Meanwhile, in Dutch, most plurals are made by adding -en to a word.
ReplyDeleteHowever, a significant amount of plurals have an -s like in English.
Unless, of course when a word end in a vowel, then the plural is 's.
1 foto, 2 foto's.
1 baby, 2 baby's.
But if the vowel is preceded by another vowel, then obviously it's just an s again. 1 essay, 2 essays. 1 bureau, 2 bureaus.
(and yes, that last one is just to piss of the French who really want an -x there).
Finally, like in English, there's a few exceptions:
1 kind, 2 kinderen. (Child/children)
Got it? Easy peasy.
Possessive -s is almost always an -s, like in German. Exceptions are long vowels written as short vowels, and s sounds. But why am I stating the obvious?
And then there's the lone apostrophe when the possessivized word itself ends in an -s: Iris' boek etc.
DeleteI was reading an article about a man and his 19 year old son hiking the Appalachian trail in VT.
ReplyDeleteCrossing a farm the saw a basket full of cucumbers. The sign read “Free cuc’s to hikers”
The discussion went;
It should say cukes.
No, there’s no k in cucumber.
For clarity like bikes.
Hmm... but the apostrophe is wrong.
After reading that I though it’s not wrong, the apostrophe is replacing the “umber” in cucumbers.
But I admit I struggle with the fine points of grammar.
To me Grammar baked the cookies.
xoxoxoBruce
I'm not a grammar Nazi, but I don't th'nk you c'n j'st insert an apos'phe when'er you want to l'ave out s'me l'tters.
DeleteBut if you do leave letters out the apostrophe would be a courtesy clue to someone trying to decipher it. ;o)
ReplyDeletexoxoxoBruce