Name: The decline of the apostrophe: 6 Minute English
Uploaded: 2020-03-26T00:11:10.000Z
Duration: 6 min 34 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Georgina: Hello. This is 6 Minute English, I'm Georgina.

Rob: Well, it depends. Usually I’m pretty

chilled out about it, but sometimes, just

example – if I see a sign for taxis at a

train station and it says taxi – apostrophe - s – aargh!

to show there is more than one – it’s used

to show there is a missing letter or that

the word is a possessive – it’s just wrong!

Georgina: So when you say you’re pretty

Rob: …OK, I’m not chilled at all. But maybe

Georgina: Well, we’re going to be taking a

look at reactions to the use and abuse of

apostrophes in this programme, but first,

The word ‘apostrophe’ itself – which

Rob: I don’t think it’s Arabic, so it’s a

Georgina: OK. We’ll see if you’re correct at

misused. It’s put where it shouldn’t be and

an apostrophe and ‘its’ without. ‘Your’

and ‘you’re’ – short for ‘you are’

sound the same. So what’s the problem in

Rob: In many cases there isn’t a problem

at all. There would be very little confusion.

But, I don’t think that means we should

make clear if it’s a singular or plural or

tried for nearly 20 years to keep others to

pointed out incorrect use in public signs

successful. But like the apostrophe itself

the group is in danger. Here’s a BBC news

Duncan Kennedy: They linger above our letters,

Protection Society – yes there really is

one – says their future is, well, up in the air.

Rob: Using metaphorical, poetic language.

He says they linger above our letters. To

linger is a verb usually used to describe

said they wander around the end of the words.

means its future is not certain, it’s not

holiday plans are up in the air, it means that

there is some kind of problem and you might not

be going on holiday after all. The person

old, he has decided to give it up. Partly

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The decline of the apostrophe: 6 Minute English

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