No matter which side of the political fence you're on, if you're watching TV news you're hearing an uproar about the words that the political candidates, their campaign surrogates, and their supporters are using.
Today it's all about whether Joe Biden intended to say a plural or a possessive word when he said that Trump supporters were the only garbage he saw floating around.
If you listen to it in context, it sounds like he meant it as a plural. However, his campaign staff is insisting that he meant it as a possessive - with reference only to the comedian who made a stupid remark about Puerto Rico.
The big controversy today revolves around whether the first transcript was correct (when it wrote it as a plural) and whether it was legal, moral, ethical, etc. for them to go back and insert that apostrophe before the s for the "official" transcript.
I'm so clueless. Until today I didn't realize that all the words he speaks in those situations are transcribed and kept in the National Archives.
I'm sure everyone has his or her own opinion and will believe their own ears.
If that remark is going to affect the election, the damage (or lack of it) is done. Now it is only history that will be affected.
This morning Trey Gowdy said he couldn't believe that he'd be discussing apostrophes on TV.
But that's exactly what they're discussing today, because the meaning of the sentence hinges on that little punctuation mark.
Apostrophes also matter in the words you write in notes to clients and prospects, and in your marketing materials.
You aren't likely to sway an election, but you could sway a potential client's opinion of you if the words you write make you look foolish.
How could it do that? By making the sentence make no sense.
Consider these two sentences:
- They toured three houses. This one makes sense.
- They toured three house's. This one doesn't, because it leaves you wondering three house's what? Three house's attics? Three house's back yards? Three house's neighborhoods?
If you use an apostrophe before the s, then something needs to come after that answers the question "what?"
Plurals don't use apostrophes!
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