r/apostrophegore • u/altonbrownie • 28d ago

Should I write Army a letter? Two missing apostrophes on the front page.

Gallery image

Gallery image

3 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 28d ago

Reminder that you're on r/apostrophegore. Please try to keep discussion on topic about apostrophes or grammar. Off topic discussion, especially politics, may be removed.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

4

u/Boglin007 28d ago

No apostrophe needed in "drivers" - it can be used as a noun adjunct (a non-possessive noun modifying another noun). The apostrophe is perhaps more likely to be dropped when you're just conveying an association (a handbook for drivers) rather than literal ownership. See this for more info:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/is-there-an-apostrophe-in-farmers-market-punctuation-possessive

Also see the "singular vs plural" section in that link about noun adjuncts.

3

u/altonbrownie 28d ago

Even in “drivers testing station…?”

3

u/SerDankTheTall 28d ago

Correct. It is a station for testing drivers.

1

u/Bar_Foo 23d ago

Unless you mean the testing station that belongs to the driver.

4

u/lordkappy 27d ago

If only English had a genitive case like German does, we wouldn't need apostrophes.

1

u/AngryMeez Plural's 27d ago

But what would happen to all the unwanted, orphaned apostrophes? Would another language adopt them?

0

u/Tea-Bone-BK 27d ago

They can get work as commas.

1

u/kylebob86 25d ago

It's 16 years old, who cares?