Even Greener Pastures

I think one of the things I liked about German a lot was being able to forget about the apostrophe, and I always agreed it really was a Deppenapostroph, the dummies‘/idiot‘s apostrophe, because it doesn’t really serve much of a purpose. If you write „Johns shoes“ what do you need an apostrophe for? It is kind of dumb. Why is it supposed to be „John‘s shoes?“ Are there guys named „Johns“ compared with others out there just named „John“? Not that I‘ve ever heard of. Yeah, I really don’t get the need for it.

I really haven’t seen much of a problem around here with people misusing the apostrophe because I doubt any of them know what one is anyway...you really can‘t expect much from the locals around where I live They are not geniuses. If anything I’m quite sure the tendency is to leave it out.

I had to read the allegations in a restraining order today for some consultation I had, and I was really struggling to read what the wife wrote, it was that bad. It was like „an He grab belt and hold it on me throat....and I fraid for mi life“.  And these are native speakers? I thought I was reading something a 10 year old wrote. It’s really that bad. And this woman was not mentally disabled or anything.


 What I rarely see is the g getting dropped, except in speech. That’s probably more a regional thing, like where Jerry lives, „I‘m fixin to go fishin.“ Sounds awfully mid-western/southern to me. Or sometimes you get an „a“ in front of it for no reason, like „I‘m a fixin to go fishin.“ How the „a“ found its way in there, I have no idea.

I think what drives me nuts is when you have a noun already ending in an s and you have to add an apostrophe or something to show possession. So, since I guess it would just look too weird to say „Mr. Peters`s shoes“ you have to write „Mr. Peters‘ shoes“. But, then I always get confused when it‘s supposed to be „Mr. Peterses shoes“. So, is it just an apostrophe out there hanging at the end or an es? Those two are the only ones that drive me nuts. I do what Alharacas does, and just go by what looks right, based on what I suppose I‘ve seen before written. English is so non-phonetic you really have to rely on memory of what looks right most of them time anyway.