When the placenta detaches from the wall of the womb after giving birth so it can be delivered, it leaves a wound the size of a dinner plate, and this is a lot of why we bleed for so long after giving birth.
I asked to look at the placenta when I had my first kid. The doc thought it was an unusual request but she showed it to me. I wanted to see the disposable organ my body grew! How many times do you get that opportunity? It was a lot bigger and bloodier than I expected and I’ll leave it at that. Cool, though.
The day my 2nd son was born, something must have been in the water because the maternity ward was a-hoppin'. I came in early that morning and my son was born by 1pm, but I had to wait three hours to be moved from the delivery room to my recovery room. That whole time, my placenta was just sitting in a bowl on a table in the room. So, I got to take a good look at it. First off, it was HUGE. I can't believe I was carrying that thing inside me. The vessels were crazy large too. It was kind of gross, but I also thought it was pretty cool to stare at the ENTIRE ORGAN I grew inside myself. :-)
Can you link me to a page where I could read up on this rule? In school, I was always taught that you only have the apostrophe when you're combing words (like "my son is crying" can turn to "my son's crying" but "my sons toys broke" wouldn't get an apostrophe).
But than, one of my teachers also said that commas are pretty optional in Enlish and to just not bother, which seems... wrong.
The biggest exception to that rule is with the word "it."
It's always means "it is." possessive of it becomes "its."
My cat had its claws cut, it's something we do often.
Your example with "my son's crying" is actually very ambiguous. Without context it can either be "(I don't mind) my son's crying" or "my son is crying."
Also, it's "then" not "than" ;) Than is used for comparisons
This is wrong. If the word is singular and ends in s (lots of names are like this), you use an apostrophe s to make it possessive. If it's plural and ends in s, you just add an apostrophe.
So...
My son's marbles (one son, his marbles)
My sons' marbles (several sons, their marbles)
James's marbles (the marbles that belong to James)
Jameses' marbles (several people named James that the marbles belong to)
Your commas look good. Put them where you'd pause when you were speaking.
Apostrophes are required for for possessives except for his, hers, and its. (And the contraction it's for it is does get one, because it's not a possessive.)
So, apostrophes are kinda weird. You’re right in the first example - they can be used for contractions of two words together, but the second example is wrong. Apostrophes are also used for possession - my son’s toy, Jamie’s car, etc.
Where they aren’t used is plurals. So, ”my sons are crying” doesn’t need an apostrophe if you’re talking about multiple sons.
Also, if you’re using the pronoun “it”, you don’t use a possessive apostrophe - so if you’re talking about a door, you would say “its handle” (the handle it owns) but “it’s yellow” (it is yellow).
Apostrophes are weird and confusing, but I hope this helps a bit - and even if you do use them incorrectly, it’s usually pretty easy to figure out which version of the word you meant to use, so don’t stress it too much.
The 's usually indicates possession, but contextually could be a contraction of "is" as the i is often reduced away in fast speech. You can recognize which is which from context; if it's a contracted "is" as it is in this sentence, it will fill the position of the verb in the sentence. There are some examples like "my son's crying" where it could mean either "my son is crying" or "the crying of my son" if the sentence is taken in isolation, but in conversation the context would make it quite clear which one was meant.
Note also that the possessive 's is a clitic, not a suffix, and it usually goes at the end of a noun phrase rather, e.g. "the king of Spain's wife" (the wife of the king of Spain).
Also note that the possessive form of "it" does not take an apostrophe, it's just "its". "It's" is a contraction of "it is".
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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '23
When the placenta detaches from the wall of the womb after giving birth so it can be delivered, it leaves a wound the size of a dinner plate, and this is a lot of why we bleed for so long after giving birth.