Writing & Grammar: Where Does the Apostrophe Go?

by Jennie Ruby 

Perhaps you have seen a grocery store sign saying "Orange's." Or maybe you have chortled over some poor soul who spelled "mens' room" with the apostrophe on the wrong side, because men is plural, right? Let's see how many of us can put the apostrophes to rights. (You can post your answers as comments below.)

1. The black and tan puppy ran right into the childrens' room.
2. All three puppie's noses were white from the milk in the cereal bowl.
3. The kid's faces brightened as soon as they saw the puppies.
4. The cat guarded the kitten's from the rambunctious dogs.
5. The biggest dogs paw's were up on the table.
6. The children pulled the puppies and the momma dogs ears.
7. There was little doubt about the puppies affection.

Here are the answers for the challenge on punctuation with the word however. They are brought to you by Rita Martino. Special thanks to Michelle Duran for drawing my attention to the fact that meltwater should be all one word, rather than two separate words--even though Microsoft Word is red-underlining it right now. Webster's says it is one word, and that is good enough for me.

1. The tiny bird explored every crevice of the log; however, it did not seem to find any food.
2. Snow covered the ground within the woods; the road, however, was clear.
3. Beside the road, pools of meltwater had formed; however, the road was completely dry.
4. The bird flew down from a branch to forage in the clear space beside the road; the passing traffic, however,frightened it back.
5. The bird returned to the roadside, however, hoping to find a seed.
6. What it found when it returned, however, was something unexpected.
7. The roadside was sprinkled with breadcrumbs, and however you look at it, that bird's luck had finally turned.

Other winners are Kolja Fuchs, David Zimmerle, Karyn Highet, Anne Goldenberger, Chris Zimmel, Jiang Ping Fan, Ginny Supranowitz, and Sonia Verma.

The example where many lost out was number 7: the clause "however you look at it" is not parenthetical, and therefore should not be surrounded on both sides by commas. Instead, it is introductory to the second sentence. So no comma before however.

Comments

[Kelly]

Here are my thoughts:

1.The black and tan puppy ran right into the children's room.
2.All three puppies' noses were white from the milk in the cereal bowl.
3.The kids' faces brightened as soon as they saw the puppies.
4.The cat guarded the kittens from the rambunctious dogs.
5.The biggest dog's paws were up on the table.
6.The children pulled the puppies' and the momma dog's ears.
7.There was little doubt about the puppy's affection. (plural being "puppies' affections.")