Thats kind of how the processor capacity expands with doubling (it is actually much greater than that, as each additional bit doubles the capacity. for people and etc. And my final word choice is one that is loaded with meaning, both socially and politically. etc.). I cant really answer the readers question. One says Charlzez book so one should write Charless book. For example - for plural when necessary. I know the rule, but the second way sure seems to be less confusing. I see it as a bit like driving a car, which has lots of rules attached. Mind your ps and qs. You have to remember that there are billions of other people out here, many of whom are happy with the rules as they are. In English there are many punctuations marks each with different uses and an apostrophe is one of them. Researchers discovered that playing soothing music was about as effective as poking an angry wolverine with a stick (Dixon et al., 2014, p. 13). The New York Times is one of the biggest sinners when it comes to wrongfully using years with apostrophes kills me every time , I believe Meave covered that subject in an early part of this post. My biggest question has to do with names that end in s. The Adams house? An apostrophe is used in place of the missing characters. If youre sitting on a great blog post Also, its a fun word to say out loud. To make it up to you, today Im going to tackle the letter U, which is the next letter in my ongoingVocabulary Series. The department graduated five M.A.s and two Ph.D.s this year. Apostrophes are used to form contractions to indicate omitted letters, such as could nt (the apostrophe indicates the missing letter o ). Could I use an apostrophe if that was the case without looking like an idiot? Word grammer checker want to add apostrophe. Apostrophes are punctuation marks used to indicate possession; the placement of an apostrophe depends upon the word being made possessive. This first word is a verb that makes me think of soft summer days at the beach. Possessive Apostrophes. The byte did not change. I often refer to loudspeakers with model numbers like JF80, UPM-1p, or UB40e. Scott Snyder Im with you too. The modern meaning appeared in the early 1600s. So I thought I would share what I found out with all of you. One possible Proto-Indo-European root is weip-, meaning to twist, turn, or wrap, which could suggest a veiled person. That saved me having to look it up to confirm that my memory is not faulty, and Charles book is indeed correct. The worst case of abuse of the possessive rules was when a colleague, who habitually uses I where he should use me, made the declaration one day that this idea was John and Is. I nearly fell off my chair. Whereas Ds cant be mistaken, even if my stubborn refusal to conform and use quotation marks for quotes does rather complicate matters. Here are several uses for apostrophes in English writing, with examples of how theyre used in scientific papers (if at all): Contractions. Seeing as were at the letter V, I couldnt pass up the opportunity to tell you about the origins of the words that describes one of my favourite monsters. What about a model number that includes letters and numbers? When the data is referenced in programs in multiples of bytes, the term Word is introduced, as in 2-byte Word, or 4-byte Word, or 8-byte. Vacare likely comes from a translation of the Greek word kenon, which means that which is empty. phone short for telephone. Perhaps we can stem the tide of apostrophes used to make plurals. and those that must be distinguished from similar lowercased forms. I understood that making text entities with non-letter characters into a plural form, you separate the s from the term with an apostrophe 1900s, Jones, Smiths, or Bang!s. Apostrophes are also used in contractions; however, contractions are not common in academic writing. The exceptions are just needlessly confusing and may be ignored unless confronted by a strict grammarian. Firstly, you wont change the rules except for yourselves. It was formed by adding the word dare, meaning to give, to the stem trans-, meaning over. The interesting thing is that all three words share a common root, which might explain the tendency to confuse them. It can also be used to indicate a failure to achieve or understanding something. Definition: Unintelligent or expressionless; lacking substance or content; empty. It would be too bizarre. One of the most basic we impose that order on an otherwise unruly collection of information is the application of stringent punctuation rules . My Canada Day celebrations began with a tornado warning and ended with fireworks, which I think sums up my country pretty nicely. You better not, as it would no longer be my name. 1. add 's to the singular form of the word (even if it ends in -s): the owner's car James's hat (James' hat is also acceptable. All Right Reserved. How seemingly simple, to eradicate apostrophe abuses by abolishing it! I cannot fathom why on earth it would make sense to use two different rules for lower- and uppercase letters here.). Sat.s at 8 p.m.? Here are only some of the rules this style guide offers. All Rights Reserved. No, they didnt round off the numbers badly. Comes from the Old French word unctueus, which comes from the Medieval Latin word unctuosus, both meaning greasy. Photo short for photograph hence photos. Os might look a little odd, but so is the product name. Ive already discussed the difference between e.g. . 8 bits was very limiting in the size of data it could work with, so a new generation of processors doubled the capability to 16 bits., allowing it to work with (loosely) 256 times as much data as before. a hole in your virtual pocket, you should The little apostrophe was not meant to make one hamburger into multiple hamburgers. Officially, there are binary prefixes: Ki, Mi, Gi, etc. The letter s-s shape. Each room does not have an address, but the house does. Definition: A reanimated corpse that leaves its grave at night to drink the blood of the living by biting their necks with abnormally long and pointed canine teeth; a person who preys ruthlessly on others. This leaves us with BUT Apostrophes are complicated., Why do people do this to the apostrophe? So, if you wanted to discuss a study on the zombie apocalypse that had three or more authors, your in-text citations would look something like this: In contrast, etc. The meaning that describes a person who preys on othersespecially emotionally or psychologicallywas first recorded in 1741. has eight possible, ambiguous cases , (The boys books titles capitalization is the case of a boy with a book which has multiple titles. Ill give it a shot: If a subset of students all received the same grade on their reports, then the grade need not be pluralized. Just remember, we only have 1 form of the and 2 ways of saying it depending on the following letter. If you never use an apostrophe in a plural you will never be wrong. Members assembly, if its more than one member and you want to show they own the assembly. 2. Franc Mikloi, an expert on Slavic languages, believed that the origins of vampire can be traced to the Kazan Tatar word, ubyr, meaning witch. Whats the plural form of grades? Youre a bit out of dateit used to be degree Kelvin before 1967; now its just kelvin: no capitals. Ill add a piece from our post on this topic. Although I must say, many of the rules above are entirely arbitrary. We shall discuss what an apostrophe is and get to know itsuses and importance. In your own ranch, however, you dont have to give a right turn signal to turn right out of your cow paddock into the holding yard, but out on the street you have to, because there are all these other people who need to know what you are doing. Remember when you wanted the PC/XT, with 128 k RAM instead of the basic 64k (64 kilobytes)? The tank is made of aluminum, but the outer surface is protected by a spray-on foam. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! UPA-1Ps, JF80s, etc. (Also its consistent with lower case letters. Definition, History, Origin and Usage of Symbol Pilcrow, Most Used Synonyms By Students For The Most Common Words, 3 Basic Newsletter Formats with Samples to Choose From, Writing Your Personal SWOT Analysis to Assess and Analyze Yourself, Writing a Letter of Appreciation to the Employee, Simple Brainstorming Techniques and Tricks to Help Write Killer Content, 10 Best Grammar Tools to Master Correct Usage of Syntax and Punctuation. Think of the processor data unit as an envelope. There are two cases to show possession in this regard: In contraction, an apostrophe is used to show the omission of a letter or letters. (or Maddoxes?). Two boys were bragging about their dogs. The correct use of quotation marks can be confusing for authors, especially those whose primary language is not English (ESL authors). Ms Foster Im with you. I think part of my confusion, was confusing the plural of the 1980s with the possessive such as 1980s music. The given computer will process in a multiple of the bytes. In the same way that you say its and not its, you say my and not mes/Is; your and not yous. Similar words can be seen in the Bulgarian vapir and Ukranian uper. 2 ** 30 would be for gigabytes, or 1048576 kilo bytes. Likewise: (Many s. They have a shape.) When I was in grammar school in the 1980s, the way I just wrote the plural of 1980 would have been considered wrong. The Jeffersons live here. DO use the apostrophe to form the plural of lowercase letters: Given that informal constructions are omitted in research reports, apostrophes also disappear from there. Wasnt I complaining about the snow and the cold not that long ago? If I had my druthers, wed phase out altogether the use the apostrophe to form the possessive of nouns. And for you scientific types, special rules apply for the plural of SI symbols: No periods are used after any of the SI symbols for units, and the same symbols are used for both the singular and the plural. The 1920s were noted for excess. The byte remained as 8 bits. Loga comes from the early Old English word leogan, meaning to lie. Comes from the Latin word vacuus, meaning empty, void, or free, which is related to the word vacare, meaning to be empty. But one might be tempted to reach for the apostrophes with a sentence like this: In a small envelope, you can fit a given number note book pages, lets say 4. Many Pakistanis have immigrated to the U.S. (not Pakistanis) moonshine grid over at yeah write. P.S. Apostrophes have two main uses: Indicating possession (e.g. One could write a sentence like this without confusing a reader: Teachers and editors could save their red ink for dealing with the apostrophe and plurals. Definition: To waver between two different opinions, options, or actions; to be indecisive; to sway unsteadily. Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Tradition can refer to the passing down of customs or beliefs from generation to generation. The Adamss house? Comes from the French word vampire, or the German Vampir, which is seen in 1732 in an account regarding Hungarian vampires. The difference is all in the prefix, which just goes to show how important the little things really are. Ive been a bit lax withmy grammar and vocabulary posts lately, for which I apologize. Im still on the fence about titles. Copyright 2020 Daily Writing Tips . As a writer, I find that you can generally get by with a few easy rules: 1) Use an apostrophe to indicate possession (e.g., Sharons, the boys, etc.). degrees Celsius, Kelvin, etc.) Heres an example of correct usage (if we assume the participants were lab rats and not people): Okay, heres a better example of correct usage: And heres an example of incorrect usage: So Ill leave you with a question: if we use et al. The unit that the processor uses, from 1 bit to 128 bit or larger, was called word. The placement of an apostrophe depends upon the word you are making possessive. Technical writing is nothing if its not about discipline, precision and consistency. Im going to visit upon you a veritable variety of vexing and vainglorious vocabulary beginning with the letter V. This first word is a fabulous verb that conjures visions of indecisive sea anemones. Capital letters do not normally require an apostrophe in the plural. Why not use one sign for possession and another for plural? Think of a bit as a room in a house. Before we continue, we first need to know what an apostrophe is.Apostrophe definition: this is a If students at his school have been going to the same restaurant and ordering the same hamburger for several years, it could be considered a tradition. Etymology: Comes from the Old English word wif, meaning woman, female, lady, and occasionally wife. Elude is also a verb. And finallyDRUM ROLLour readers question about using an apostrophe with non-letter characters: DO NOT use an apostrophe to form the plural of a number: In my editing work, I run into Latin hand-me-downs regularly. I just thought I would mention this. Sometimes deliberately shortening the length of the message is fine, as in the economizing of its transmission, but you have to remember that is the context and we cannot build formal rules around that because technology will continue to drive changes. Spanish and French have 4 and German 6 ways of saying the! Suzanne Purkis Thanks to everyone who has put an oar in the water. Sat.-s (The Saturdays meetings were popular.). NOTE: If you leave out the periods, you can write MAs but youd still have to write PhDs. . Thanks, whilst I do know all of this such is the convoluted nature of the correct usage that it helps assuage doubt to occasionally refresh my memory. In above examples an apostrophe is used to show that certain letter have been skipped while using the contracted form of the words. As a technical communicator, its important to understand the difference between the two. the 1990s When we teach history, we accept that we have no business trying to change that history just because it doesnt sit well (who likes to hear that our ancestors, the settlers, displaced the original inhabitants so cruelly and unfairly?). As an irritatingly pedantic professional writer, it is a great relief to find a website where I can vent my frustrations. Definition: Oily, or having a greasy or soapy feel; to be excessively flattering or ingratiating. Despite the fact that it would of course need to be fully capitalised to refer to the product it still reads the same as it. Sometimes an s at the end could change the meaning of the model number. An hilarious series of exchanges. Sats. Today, I warmly welcome the wise and the whatnot to allow the letter W to wash over your wonderfully whimsical selves. Thanks, Maeve, for keeping this topic alive! Perhaps people abuse the apostrophe in this way because they dont know the difference between ownership and plurals. And it can sometimes refer to an artistic or literary style, established by a particular artist or writer, which is then followed by others. I think the confusion stems from the fact that grammar rules change with each new generations pet peeves. On the subject at hand, I question why dos (as in dos and donts) does not require an apostrophe, but maybes does. This reader wants to know why we write 1980s and not 1980s. Same for Saturday. Word nerd that I am, something about his use of tradition niggled at me. for things, which one would you apply to a bunch of zombies? In this case, those other things are never people. Also, the boys books titles capitalization (Many s. They do something.) Long after hed left for school, I found myself wondering if what he was describing was a ritual rather than a tradition. Yes; except that disk drive manufacturers use the standard multiple of 1000, except for kB, so 1 GB of disk space is actually 1,024,000,000 bytes, but 1 GB of memory is 1,073,741,824 bytes, just to confuse people! Instead of maybes, it is maybies. This next word is one of my favourite adjectives, in part because its so much fun to say. Great post. and i.e., so today Id like to talk about the difference between et al. This reader wants to know why we write 1980s and not 1980s. Fenton: Improving your technical writing Version 9 2 January 2019 Page 15 / 36 The general r ule is to try to provide an examp le before providing an abstract its use as a table heading). Because he became entrenched in abusing one rule, he was forced to start abusing other rules. Subscribers get access to our archives with 800+ interactive exercises! Intel processors started out processing 8 bits (one byte) at a time. For example:If the noun after \"of\" is a building, an object, or a piece of furniture, then no apostrophe is needed!Once you've determined whether you need to make a possessive, follow these rules to create one. Its only because I know my brother that I can infer the context and understand what he is telling me.). An apostrophe is used after certain indefinite pronouns and then an s is added after them to make possessives. Im tired of all his maybes. But its one you wont see very often. -Numbers: I think numbers (numerals) make sense to use apostrophe plurals for as well. When the world (outside of computer types) think kilo or k means 1,000 there is this nagging worry about a hard drive with 256 gigabytes of storage (1,024 / 4 = 256, another even binary number). Ritual can refer to a religious or solemn ceremony involving of a series of actions performed in a prescribed order. Unctuosus comes from the Latin unctus, which refers to the act of anointing. As but not Bs? If your abbreviation causes it to lose its meaning, dont abbreviate. Your minion alluded to how you planned to elude us, so we illuded you by letting you think you were getting away with it. The prefixes are only used in conjunction with metric units. Also, Kelvin, the SI unit of temperature, is written with a capital letter in its spelled-out form.