Looks like you made your own mistake – directly after describing the parallel issue, in your next section you make the parallel blunder…practice what you preach
So it would be impossible to have “childrens” as an owner because there is no such word as “childrens”
#9 – “I could care less.” is an American colloquialism, and while logically incorrect, is perfectly understandable in its meaning.
#152 – “We cannot effect change in this organization.” – is perfectly correct when ‘effect’ (verb) is followed by a direct object (change). It means “to cause to happen”.
#152 – “Everything we do is affected by our supply chain.” – https://paydayloansnc.com/ ‘Affect’ here is used in the context of something acting upon a process already in progress, not caused to happen by the object phrase (our supply chain).
“The Smiths car is a seven seater.” The car belongs to the Smiths – mum, dad the kids. So the Smiths own the car. “The Smiths’ car is a seven seater.”
The last guidance rule I use is that if once you have put the apostrophe after the owner, if it sounds right to do so, you may add another “s”.
My pupils seemed to make sense of this, but I’ve got no follow-up evidence that it had a lasting impression! Pity!
As a child, I heard a lot of facetious comments, ironically, from my mother who was a very serious person. So, needless to say, this was a phrase that was common in my home.
As for my struggles, they are with “who” and “whom.” Those two battle it out with me all the time! Who wins? LOL!
These are all great things to keep in mind…although…I’m surprised that my biggest pet peeve of all was not mentioned anywhere in the comments…which is…the overuse of ellipses!
Clearly that was overdoing it, but honestly some people’s blogs are nothing but a big run-on sentence punctuated by a ton of ellipses. It’s like people aren’t sure about the correct punctuation, so they just throw those … Continue reading “One more use: to fill in for a missing letter”