Apostrophe or no apostrophe?

Question

HelloIs it right to use an apostophe in "creature's" in the sentence below?"Nothing is worth destroying a rare creature's habitat."Also, when is an apostrophe used to indicate plurals? For example is it "PCs" or "PC's"?Thank you for any help!

Bakeros1987 · Accepted Answer

Well actually it can be both correct and incorrect, depending upon the context.

Consider this:

a) you are talking about one creature and one habitat- so in this case your sentence is correct.

b) you are generally talking about rare creatures, so it would be- nothing is worth destroying rare creatures' habitat(s). I have put 's' in brackets because rare creatures can have more than one habitat.

As an answer to your question- yes that sentence is correct.

About the plural- I hope these examples will make it clear to you:

a) He found rabit's hideout (what we have here is only one rabit)

b) He found rabits' hideout (more than one rabit)

I hope this will make it clear

cheers

Dokterjokkebrok · Answer

Hi Matsuke,

Welcome to EnglishForward.com.

matsukeIs it right to use an apostophe in "creature's" in the sentence below?

"Nothing is worth destroying a rare creature's habitat."

Yes, it certainly is. It's very common to use 's or ' to indicate possession, especially with humans and animals. Inanimate objects usually get an 'of phrase'. There are exceptions, though. For example, 'this week's news', 'England's economy', 'the car's roof'.

matsukeAlso, when is an apostrophe used to indicate plurals? For example is it "PCs" or "PC's"?

Apostrophes can be used in the plurals of letters of the alphabet. E.g. 'my name is spelt with two l's.' I think it makes it more clear. Abbreviations also take an apostrophe, I think, but writing them without one seems to be more common. I think both PCs and PC's are correct.

Kind regards,

Dokterjokkebrok

Bakeros1987 · Answer

Isn't PC's indicating the singular form, is it?

I'd venture a guess that PCs'

Correct me if I am wrong please

cheers

Dokterjokkebrok · Answer

Welcome Bakeros,

Yes, and that's why it's an exception to the rule I think.

I've just looked it up my reference book, and Mr Swan tells me it's perfectly okay. Personally, I prefer using no apostrophe with the plural of PC. With letters of the alphabet, however, it's different. I think there some logic behind it because with some letters, the letter 'a' for example, not using an apostrophe could – and most likely would – lead to misconceptions. E.g. 'I write all myas correctly.' That'd be odd, and I think apostrophes are quite useful here, practically speaking.

Kind regards,

Dokterjokkebrok

Dokterjokkebrok · Answer

Oh wait, hang on. I misread your reply.

I think PCs' is almost never used. But, since I'm not a native speaker, nor a teacher, you can't take my word for it.

It may be possible, e.g. 'The PCs' keyboards have worn off', but I cannot say anything about how natural this sounds. I would go for the of-phrase to indicate possession.

Kind regards,

Dokterjokkebrok

Matsuke · Answer

Thanks all for your help.

Just to clarify, this is how I understand it.

The singular form is written as:
"Nothing is worth destroying a rare creature's habitat."

The plural form is written as:
"Nothing is worth destroying rare creatures' habitats."

Thanks!

Bakeros1987 · Answer

Yep, you got it correctly:)

cheers,

Apostrophe or no apostrophe?

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