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Assume v. Presume

So define a rule which takes account of the exceptions. The rule I applied is "apostrophe not required to indicate the possessive if there is no confusion with a plural form".
 
EDIT: Cross Post.
'It's' is an abbreviation of 'it is' or to indicate a possessive of 'it', so 'man's' is either an abbreviation of 'man is' or to indicate a possessive of man. Surely 'its' is normally followed by an adjective or an adjectival phrase, but 'it's' is normally followed by the possessed noun. Or is 'it/it's' a special case as 'it' cannot be pluralised by the addition of an 's'?
A noun with an 's' is normally a plural . So 'one mans fastidiousness' is wrong because in this case 'one man' is not a plural, and as 'fastidiousness' is a noun that is obviously possessed by 'one man' so the 'mans' should have the possessive apostrophe?
What is 'ones' anyway? You can't pluralise 'one' by the addition of an 's', because the plural of 'one' is 'two'
Where is that rule BH? But it sounds reasonable.
 
prpr said:
I've never heard of this 'rule'. It this something you just made up to suit yourself?
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It explains why "its" and "ones" are the possessive form of "it" and "one" instead of "it's" and one's". All I did was extend it to include "mans". "Todays" could be another example - but note that the spell checker has thrown out "todays" but not "mans". Grammar is based on rules, although I acknowledge there are no end of exceptions (which prove them - what a weird expression!). Are "its" and "ones" exceptions, or examples of a rule?
Trev said:
'It's' is an abbreviation of 'it is' or to indicate a possessive of 'it'
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No, the possessive form of "it" conventionally does not include an apostrophe. "It's" is always a contraction of "it is". There are other possessive forms which also do not include an apostrophe - eg "whose".

Rules are how I remember what the grammar/spelling should be, and the rule I stated is what I applied. I admit that "mans" gave me pause for thought, but you can't just reject it out of hand. To quote another rule about apostrophes: "if in doubt, leave it out".
 
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Black Hole said:
"Todays" could be another example - but note that the spell checker has thrown out "todays" but not "mans".
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I can think of a sentence which legitimately pluralises "today", but any case which pluralises "man" would be "men":

All our todays​

Therefore "today's" would be the correct possessive (according to my rule), and my spell checker is wrong to throw out the plural.
 
How can 'today' or 'yesterday' be pluralised? There is only one of each and if you wait until tomorrow (of which there is only one), today becomes yesterday, but there is still only one yesterday trying to play catch-up with today.:frantic:
 
Remember 'All our Yesterdays' with Brian Inglis? My father watched this programme avidly to see if he could see himself on film when it reached 1940 on. He didn't.
 
Black Hole said:
So define a rule which takes account of the exceptions. The rule I applied is "apostrophe not required to indicate the possessive if there is no confusion with a plural form".
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I would be more interested in finding out why there are exceptions. It's became its in the C18, for no apparent reason. The apostrophe represented elision of an e in the genitive -es ending.

As an aside, have you ever looked at Loglan and Lojban?

http://www.opoudjis.net/lojbanbrochure/lessons/less3poss.html
 
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Trev said:
How can 'today' or 'yesterday' be pluralised? There is only one of each and if you wait until tomorrow (of which there is only one), today becomes yesterday, but there is still only one yesterday trying to play catch-up with today.:frantic:
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Yesterday is easy, Each day has a yesterday, there are hundreds of them! I admit, using yesterdays rather than days is more poetic, maybe?

But, as you said, today will be yesterday tomorrow. Unless you cross a time zone boundary at midnight. Yesterday can last for two days, with a bit of careful planning.

But then, there is no tomorrow!:eek:

And in relativity, well, that is a totally different ball game. Even leaving Earth creates problems for today, let alone landing on a different planet. If you think you can solve it by saying one day=24 hours, relativity guarantees that we all have different todays.
 
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RobH1 said:
Remember 'All our Yesterdays' with Brian Inglis? My father watched this programme avidly to see if he could see himself on film when it reached 1940 on. He didn't.
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I remember that programme. Especially a clip of some idiot in wartime Britain getting on the bus to go one stop to the pub, whilst working people were left standing at the stop.
 
Their guide to wild bore makes fascinating reading. So too does the mounting hair guide.
 
Communication from the National Trust:

With the summer holidays in full swing there are plenty of fun to be had near to you.
 
Abusive use of missals

and

nucular

all in one UN speech from the US ambassador today.
 
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