[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Seeking Grammar Police Ruling - Typo's

[Lee Kaiwen]

Steve wrote:

Anyone care to weigh in on whether "typo's" is or is not a valid
contraction of 'typographical errors'? ...Carol?

Carol responds:

Sorry, Steve. "Typo's" is not a contraction for "typographical
errors." It's the possessive form of "typo."

Now me:

Or a contraction of "typo is". But Carol's right here. The apostrophe is 
used to mark either omission or possession, but not plural. The correct 
plural for "typo" is "typos".

On the other hand, Steve's right in that the abuse of 's as a plural HAS 
seemingly become common in the last generation. I'm of three minds on 
this: the descriptivist in me finds it an interesting phenomenon. The 
proscriptivist in me cringes,  blames it on the decline of Western 
education, and sees in it a harbinger of the ultimate collapse of human 
society. And tthen he historian in me says hey, relax! People have been 
abusing apostrophes for centuries. Even the Bard did it.

CJ

P.S. OK, I made up that last bit. I have absolutely no evidence that 
Shakespeare ever abused an apostrophe. But he WAS notorious for abusing 
what we moderns consider proper rules of grammar.