Eat's, Shoot's and Leave's (apologies to Lynne Truss)

A language has to evolve with time, if it has to survive. No other language exemplifies this better than English. The English language has become richer by borrowing words from many languages of the world. A new shorter, but not sweeter, variant of the language has become the new lingo, thanks to laziness and a heavy dose of text messaging and social networking. This abbreviated version of English has begun to creep into formal communication as well. I am very comfortable with some abbreviated forms, like “w/” for “with”, “b/w” for “between” etc. But, the usage of “BR” for “Best Regards” and “Thx” for “Thanks” does not gel with me because the abbreviated forms take the emotion out of the greeting and the gratitude. When words get butchered, the humbler punctuation marks have no chance of survival. While I am an active user of certain unauthorized abbreviations and can tolerate most other abbreviations, the incorrect usage of punctuations, especially the apostrophe, appear very unpleasant to me.

Punctuation marks lend the correct meaning much beyond what is directly conveyed by the mere sequence of words. The book, “Eats, Shoots and Leaves”, illustrates the importance of correct usage of the punctuation marks, using a cute Panda joke. In our official communications, the comma is often under used, while the apostrophe is mostly abused. One can find many an unwanted apostrophe in emails and display boards, leaving the reader confused as to what is implied.

The general recommended usage of the apostrophe is to denote possession and to represent missing letter(s). For example: “The tiger's stripes” is an example for possession. “I don't smoke” is an example for representation of a missing letter.

The most common misuse of the apostrophe happens when it is used to denote a plural. For example: “Please test the board's” is grossly wrong. “Please test the boards” is just right. (That is the Electronics Engineer in me speaking). The simple rule to remember is that an apostrophe is not meant to denote a plural. Like every rule, this one too seems to have an exception. When denoting the plurals of abbreviations there is one group that recommends the usage of apostrophe and another that opposes it. I belong to the latter group, as a matter of personal preference. For instance, I prefer “ECOs” to “ECO's”, “RMAs” to “RMA's” etc. (Blame the electronics engineering terminology on my profession). The same confusion applies to plurals of numerals and single letters. I follow the no-apostrophe-for-plurals rule for numbers and single letters. That is, I prefer to write: “The batsman hit many 6s”, rather than, “The batsman hit many 6's”. Similarly, “The student passed with all As” appears better than “The student passed with all A's”. The only phrase where I am comfortable with using apostrophe for plurals is “do's and don'ts”.

Another common error I have encountered is with the words “its” and “it's”. The word “its” denotes possession or belonging, while “it's” is a contracted form of “it is”. Along the same lines, the words “lets” and “let's” are interchangeably used though they mean very different things. “Lets” means “permits”, where as, “let's” is a contraction of “let us”.

While researching for this blog, I came across “The Apostrophe Protection Society” setup by an Englishman who could not bear the torture of his mother tongue. While the FAQs page lists the correct use of the apostrophe in English, the fun part is the illustration of incorrect usage of the apostrophe contributed by readers. Worth reading if you are a fan of proper English.

PS: The title of the blog is derived from the bestseller "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynn Truss