I recommend Lynn Truss' "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" as useful reading for this author to learn how to use apostrophes correctly.

The plural of a noun is formed just by adding the letter "s" while the possessive is formed by adding an apostrophe and "s".

Only when using American usage with forming plurals of capital letter acronyms such as PC does one add an apostrophe "s" to form the pural PC's. The British usage is simply PCs.

The British usage is simply PCs.

Actually, so is the American. To wit: "I have three PCs here in my office, and I use one of the PC's word processor for typing correspondence."

I guess it's a case of correct being correct, no matter which side of the pond one claims.

Guys, I gave up long ago on punctuation for story submissions.

It has to be REALLY bad before I dump it now.

It's a sad fact that no one out there even has a grammar checker for such anymore, or any clue how to use it.

No one seems to know how to use quotation marks, commas, etc.

I read just a little while ago that when people's names end in 's' you still add the apostrophe ess after it, unlike when you're talking about possesive plurals. So it would be Lynn Truss's "Eats, Shoots and Leaves," and for an example of the possesive plural, "Get all the horses' bridles cleaned by this evening!"

An exception would be the rare plural family name. i.e. you don't keep up with the Joneses by purchasing a HD TV just like the "Joneses's TV," you purchase a HD TV just like the "Joneses' TV."

And as for silly, repetitive syllables I have to say when Peter Schickele talked about the greatest "musicalological" discovery this century I fell out of my chair laughing.

Shortie (imported) wrote: Wed Aug 31, 2005 2:40 pm Actually, so is the American. To wit: "I have three PCs here in my office, and I use one of the PC's word processor for typing correspondence."

I guess it's a case of correct being correct, no matter which side of the pond one claims.

Not invariably; both usages can be found in the U.S.; for instance the New York Times uses the apostrophe "s" to form the plural of acronyms, while the Washington Post does not, so on this side of the Atlantic it's a matter of personal choice.

The same is true regarding the addition of an "s" after an apostrophe indicating possession. In America one can write either St. James' Park or St. James's Park. My purely personal preference -- I'm not positing a rule -- is to use the "s" when it is pronounced, and avoid it when it is not, thus writing (and pronouncing) "Thomas's emasculation" and "James' castration".

While we are on this subject is is my understanding that current Britsh usage (this was not the case during my chidhood in London in the '50's/'50s) is to omit the period after initials even when they are part of a person's name, e.g. "H G Wells". This is never done in the United States, at least in terms of standard usage, where that great writer's name would always be written "H.G. Wells" or "H. G. Wells".

In certain formulaic uses "and" is often abbreviated, as in "Sugar 'n' Spice" but the second apostrophe is often (perhaps more often than not) omitted: "Sugar 'n Spice".

Finally, non-American speakers of English should not fall into the Gallicism of referring to American English as "American" (as in the French "traduit de l'Américain" which one habitually finds on the title pages of translations into French of works by American authors). Although the major early 20th Century literary critic H.L. Mencken wrote an important multi-volume work entitled "The American Language" this usage never caught on, and even those Americans most opposed to bilingual education for immigrant children will talk about the (perceived by them) need to defend "English", never "American".

None of this has anything to do with our favorite subject of emasculation, but it's fun.