Apostrophes

Apostrophe in a punctuative context: An apostrophe can be used to form posessives for nouns, indicate the omission of letters in a word for stylistic purposes or as a colloquial form of a word, and be used to indicate plurality.

Apostrophe, a figure of speech in which an absent person, a personified inanimate being, or an abstraction, is addressed as though present.

The term is derived from the Latin word apostrophus itself derived from the Greek words αποστροφος meaning accident of elision αποστρεφειν meaning a turning away.

This sense is maintained when a narrative or dramatic thread is broken in order to digress by speaking directly to someone not there, e.g., “Envy, be silent and attend!”—Alexander Pope, “On a Certain Lady at Court.”

For learning English Category Uncategorized Level Unspecified Second language English Created Apr 11, 2008 16:41 Views 1128 Share:

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  Jas Kaur 6 month(s) ago

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  The apostrophe is generally not used to indicate plurality. The only occasion this happens is when omission will cause confusion. For example, How many i's are there in Mississippi? Without the (') the sentence will read, How many is are there in ........