Ultimate Unofficial Guide

[Devika <devika@sas.upenn.edu>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "GulPlum <plumeski at y...>" 
<plumeski at y...> wrote:
> 
> Incidentally, and I don't mean to talk down to anyone but I'm 
> curious: do American schools not teach proper use of apostrophes 
any 
> more? (In particular when to use "it's" -v- "its", and correct 
usage 
> of "there/their/they're" or "your/you're".) Even in HPFGU I 
> frequently find people who seem to be native speakers who appear 
> never to have been taught the difference. 
> 
> I'll be brutally honest here: For instance, use of "The Durlsey's" 
as 
> a nominative plural (viz. several posts on the mail list in the 
last 
> 24 hours, hence my pre-occupation with this issue at this very 
> moment) causes me physical irritation. 
> 
> I repeat: I really, honestly, do not mean to make a personal attack 
> on any HPFGUer, talk down to anyone, or to call anyone stupid. 
After 
> all, if people aren't taught these things, they can hardly be 
> expected to know. As I said at the top, it's a straightforward 
> question: do American schools no longer teach these things?
> 
> (from my personal experience, all I ever needed to cover all these 
> issues was one English lesson at the age of 8.)
> 


Hmmm...how do I reply to this without offending anyone?  Well, first 
of all, yes, American schools do teach proper use of apostrophes.  
However, as Richelle pointed out, that doesn't guarantee that the 
students will learn it.  In my experience, many people do misuse 
apostrophes quite frequently.  I'm not really sure what the reason 
for this is, since American schools teach apostrophe usage and other 
grammar beginning in elementary school and continuing throughout high 
school.  However, for some reason, many intelligent people graduate 
from high school thinking that adding "apostrophe + s" at the end of 
a singular noun will make it plural.  My little sister, for example, 
is in middle school now, and she frequently misuses these words.  
She's a very bright kid, she's been reading since the age of three or 
four, and she's never gotten less than an A in any class, including 
English.  However, for some reason, she mixes up "you're" and "your," 
as well as "to" and "too" sometimes.  I could rant more about all of 
this, but that wouldn't serve any purpose since I really don't know 
what the reason for it is.  

I'm certainly not saying that everyone makes these mistakes.  After 
all, I'm American, I graduated from an American public school system, 
and seeing grammar mistakes and incorrect apostrophe usage literally 
makes me cringe.  (Of course, now that I've said all of that, I'm 
sure someone will find some grammatical error that I've made in this 
post myself <g>.)

However, I do sympathize with you since I'm touchy about these things 
as well.  

I hope I haven't offended anyone in this post--I certainly don't mean 
to.  (It's funny how I'm so concerned about offending people; after 
all, we're talking about *grammar* here, not politics or 
religion :).) 

Devika, who happens to be a double science major, for the record :)