Eventually the vowel before the S disappeared, and we were left with forms like “Johns hat.” Some 17th-century writers took the result to be an abbreviation and decided that the simple “s” of possession in a phrase like “Johns hat” must have been formed out of a contraction of the more “proper” “John his hat.” One theory is that since in English we mark contractions with an apostrophe, some scholars did so, and we were stuck with “John’s hat.” Their purported error can be a handy reminder: if you’re not sure whether a noun ending in S should be followed by an apostrophe, ask yourself whether you could plausibly substitute “his” or “her” for the S. ![]() ![]() In Medieval English possessive nouns ended with an -ES or -YS. First let’s all join in a hearty curse of the grammarians who inserted the wretched apostrophe into possessives in the first place.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |