Today's "Gotcha" Grammar Glitch--That Pesky Apostrophe Again!

When to flick an apostrophe before or after an "s" and when not to is really a problem these days. In the December 2007 edition of 280 Living, this glitch reared its ugly head no less than five times:

1) "Many years later, during the Reformation in the 1500's....When the Dutch settled in America during the 1600's..."

It is no longer necessary to use an apostrophe with references to decades and centuries. These phrases can be written as follows:

the 1500s the 1600s the 1980s the 1960s

2) Please take a moment to read this petition to help a child right here in Birmingham who's family recently experienced a house fire.

"Who's" with the apostrophe is a contraction that means one thing--who is.

When you want to write possessively about a family that belongs to a child, the correct word is "whose," which refers to possession or belonging. Therefore, this sentence should read:

Please take a moment to read this petition to help a child right here in Birmingham whose family recently experienced a house fire.

3) "I felt awful going back to work on Monday's after eating junk all day on Sunday."

The apostrophe is never used in making a word plural. This person is writing about more than one Monday, NOT something belonging to a Monday, so the sentence should read as follows:

I felt awful going back to work on Mondays after eating junk all day on Sunday.

4) Florida's Gainesville Airport will be surprising it's early morning travelers...."

"It's" is like "who's." It is a contraction that has only ONE meaning--it is. Here, the writer is referring to early morning travelers belonging to this airport. It would not work to substitute "it is" for "it's" in this sentence. Therefore, it should read as follows:

Florida's Gainesville Airport will be surprising its early morning travelers....

5) Here are a few simple ways to safeguard your luggage from going on it's own holiday...."

See 4) just above. This sentence should read as follows:

Here are a few simple ways to safeguard your luggage and keep it from going on its own holiday....

More on "There is" and "There are"

I've talked about this before, but here it is again: If you begin a sentence with "There," the verb is supposed to agree with what comes after the verb.


In the Tuesday, January 22 edition of USA Today, Alan Gomez wrote about Canada toughening its border interviews. He quoted three different people, and all three made errors in subject/verb agreement:


1) "There has been some changes in procedures," said one person.

This sentence should read as follows because "changes" is the subject, and it is plural:

There have been some changes in procedures.



2) "There's more questions being asked at the point of entry."

This sentence should read as follows:

There are more questions being asked at the point of entry.

Or, better yet in this case, get rid of "there are" and write the sentence this way:

More questions are being asked at the point of entry.


3) "...improved sharing of criminal databases have made it easier for Canadian border agents to identify Americans with a criminal past.

Whew! Double agreement problems here. First of all, "sharing" is the subject, and it is singular. Therefore, the verb "have made" should also be singular. That decision is not connected to "of criminal databases." Second, one American has one criminal past. The sentence portion should read as follows:

...improved sharing of criminal databases has made it easier for a Canadian border agent to identify an American with a criminal past.


4) "I couldn't fault any nation for trying to protect their borders."
"Any nation" refers to one country, so "their" is not the proper pronoun to refer back to that country. Depending on whether you like your countries of the feminine gender or just neuter, this sentence should read as follows:

I couldn't fault any nation for trying to protect its (her) borders.

Semicolon Update

In an article on WebMD on good health habits, Dulce Zamora wrote:

Yet, even with so much scientific support that breakfast does the body good; many people still make excuses not to eat in the morning.

A semicolon should be used to indicate END punctuation. In other words, it should only come after a complete idea. A comma is used to indicate a pause within a complete idea or a pause after an introductory element that is not a complete idea.

In this example sentence, the main idea (complete thought) is "many people still make excuses not to eat in the morning," and "people" is the subject of the sentence. Everything that comes before "many people" is just introductory material and should be set off by a comma.

The writer was probably remembering an old school rule that says something about using a semicolon to set off an element if a comma already appears within that element of the sentence, but that rule does not apply here. The phrase "even with so much scientific support that breakfast does the body good" should simply be set off by a comma. Therefore, the sentence should read as follows:

Yet, even with so much scientific support that breakfast does the body good, many people still make excuses not to eat in the morning.

I hope this helps clarify the semicolon dilemma. I also hope you take Dulce Zamora's good advice and eat a healthy breakfast every morning.

Agreement--Today's "Gotcha" Grammar Glitch

Saturday's The Birmingham News offered three clear examples of agreement confusion. First, in an article about the most costly home on the real estate market in the area, William Thornton commited the "There is/There are" error when he wrote:

There's five bedrooms, five full bathrooms and two half-baths...

If you begin a sentence with "There," the verb is supposed to agree with what comes after the verb. This sentence should read as follows:

There are five bedrooms, five full bathrooms and two half-baths....

Mr. Thornton also committed a singular/plural error, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt that this one might have been a typo when he wrote:

A team of Romanian craftsman worked on the exterior designs.

To make "craftsman" plural (which you need if you are speaking about a team of them), you must change the "a" to an "e." The fact that "craft" has an "s" on it isn't enough to make the entire word plural, so this sentence should read as follows:

A team of Romanian craftsmen worked on the exterior designs.

The third example appeared in a family tribute to the life of one of its members. One sentence read:

When you look at his life after service to the country, his greatests achievements was the integrity, the courage, the kindness and love he instilled in both of his sons.

This is a wonderful tribute, but the sentence should read as follows because "achievements" is plural:

When you look at his life after service to the country, his greatests achievements were the integrity, the courage, the kindness and love he instilled in both of his sons.

Usage Goofs--Stationary What?

I recently changed the background color and theme for my personal e-mail, and yesterday I received a reply from someone who wrote:

I like your stationary.

Although I was pleased that this person liked the change, my first reaction was to think--you liked my stationary what? There was a usage goof here.

STATIONARY (with an "a") means NOT MOVING, as in:

As my New Year's resolution, I will ride the STATIONARY bicycle 30 minutes a day.

STATIONERY (with an "e") means PAPER YOU CHOOSE FOR LETTERS (or today, the background style for your e-mail), as in:

I bought new STATIONERY for my Christmas thank you notes.

My New Year's wish for all of you is that 2008 will not be a STATIONARY year in your life--keep moving forward--and maybe brighten your outlook by choosing a new style of STATIONERY for your correspondence, whether handwritten or e-mail.

Apostrophe--Today's "Gotcha" Grammar Glitch

Apostrophes are pesky. One rule is that an apostrophe shows possession, as in the phrase "Joel's church." This phrase means basically the same as "the church of Joel." However, it is incorrect to use BOTH the apostrophe and the "of" phrase together.

Mark I. Pinsky, religion writer for the Orlando Sentinel, unnecessarily bopped the possession point twice in this morning's USA Today when he wrote the "Monday focus--On Religion" segment. While describing the churches of Rick Warren and Joel Osteen, Pinsky wrote the following:

Followers of Warren and Osteen's tend to come from those a little higher up the demographic scale than most Pentecostals.

It is correct to write about "the followers of Warren and Osteen" or about "Warren's and Osteen's followers," but it is not correct to use both "of" and the apostrophe together.

While we are considering this, let me point out one more issue here. It is correct to say, "Warren's and Osteen's followers" (putting an apostrophe on each man's name) because we are talking about two separate congregations.

If we wrote "Warren and Osteen's followers," the phrase would suggest that Rick Warren and Joel Osteen had merged their congregations and were now working together.

Don't you love figuring out apostrophes?

SELF Pronouns in the Campaign--Today's Grammar Glitch

Because I have no desire to influence anyone's vote, I won't mention which candidate, but one of the participants in the Presidential debate on ABC last Saturday evening committed the "lofty self pronoun" error several times. Here are two of the "anonymous" examples I heard:

??? and YOURSELF would agree with that statement.

??? and MYSELF voted for that legislation.

Here is the reminder about this error from one of my previous posts:

Avoid using "self" pronouns by themselves. It sounds lofty and distant to say:

Please submit your evaluations to MYSELF by Friday morning.

John and MYSELF will consider a replacement for that position.

Climb down from your high horse and use a simple pronoun instead:

Please submit your evaluations to ME by Friday morning.

John and I will consider a replacement for that position.

Presidential candidates will sound more pleasing to their potential voters if they avoid this error and say:

You and ??? would agree with that statement.

??? and I voted for that legislation.

GOOD and WELL--Today's "Gotcha" Grammar Glitch

It's more difficult to use good grammar when you are speaking than it is when you are writing and can edit what is on the screen or paper. It is also true that the first priority of sports commentators is not always perfect grammar.

That said, I hope Mike Ditka will forgive me for using a comment of his about the New York Giants on ESPN Sunday as an illustration of when to use GOOD and WELL. Mike's comment in reference to the Giants was:

They played good today.

What he should have said was that the Giants played WELL. Or, he might have said correctly that they had a GOOD game.

EXPLANATION: Use GOOD to describe a noun (person, place or thing) as in:

The Giants played a GOOD game today.

The Giants have a GOOD team this year.


In each of the sentences above, "good" describes a thing ("game" or "team").

Use WELL to describe a verb (an action) as in:

The Giants played WELL today.

He hit the ball WELL in spite of his recent surgery.

I hope you have a GOOD day and do everything WELL!