Writing & Grammar: Apostrophes and Pronouns

by Jennie Ruby  

The apostrophe can indicate possessive or sometimes plural, as we have recently seen. But wait, there's more: the apostrophe can form a contraction: collapsing two words together and leaving out some letters. Some examples are could've--short for could have--and must've, which is short for must have. The pronunciation of must've, I believe, is single-handedly responsible for thousands of English teacher nervous breakdowns and copyeditor headaches over sentences like this one:

*Jim is not home yet; he must of [should be must have] gone to the grocery store on the way home.

Pronunciation does not help us with other common errors: mixing up possessive pronouns, contractions, and other homonyms (words that sound alike but have different meanings and/or spellings).

Possessive	Contraction	Additional homonym
Your	you're
Whose	who's
Their	they're	there
Its	it's

See if you can escape the vortex of confusion over these words in this week's challenge: apostrophes and pronouns. You can send your answers directly to me.

Challenge: Apostrophes and Pronouns

1. The way the raccoon was walking, I assumed it had hurt it's foot.
2. It's about time we started getting our pronouns correct!
3. Your not going to tell me your not on the dean's list this semester!
4. The cyclone might flood your basement even if its not below the water table.
5. The old table, who's supports were weak, collapsed under the weight of the cat.
6. Who's car is parked in the police chief's parking spot?
7. The kids carried their candy in there pockets, so they did not need plastic pumpkins.
8. If your downspouts are blocked, your eaves may leak.

Oh, the embarrassment! Oh, the agony! Oh, thecorrection notice!

As several of you noticed, the answer I published as correct last week had two errors. Here are the corrected sentences:

4. Back in the 1950s writers used a lot more apostrophes.

6. Many companies find that new hires do not know the three Rs.

Answers to last week's challenge 

This week's correct answers come from Vicki Hendricks, who declared the examples "easy." However, there were no other correct answers this week! 

1. She said she was going to go to Cancun and lie on the beach for a while.
2. Last summer we went to the beach and lay in the sun for hours.
3. Just five minutes ago I laid the papers directly on the manager's desk.
4. Last month we laid the ground work for our new learning management system.
5. Next month we will lay the ground work for new systems to be installed over the next three years.
6. He told the dog to lie down.
7. The carpenter said he needed to lay a new foundation for our porch.
8. Yesterday we solved the problem with our new server. The answer lay in the way we had configured our start-up menu.
9. Don't worry about your future, Grasshopper. All of the answers lie within your grasp.
10. The geocache lies just 100 yards south of the river.
11. These old umbrellas have lain here in the corner for more than a year.
12. She could have laid the map on the table, but she chose to spread it out on the floor.

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