Why don’t pro’s use stabilisers.

[Pale Rider]

You could also argue that the apostrophe indicates that the /o/ is a long vowel and therefore not pronounced prozz. However, correctness is laid down by custom not logic, and English spelling and punctuation are hellholes that few people emerge from unharmed.

Agreed.

For what it's worth, the fashion for slapping an apostrophe on nouns to denote a plural is, I suspect, American.

While the English language still dominates the internet, much of that text is American English.

Another way to express your point is the phrase 'it is a living language'.

Thus if the majority of users write the plural of area as area's, that will become the adopted, dare I say, correct use in time as new users copy what's already there.

Apart from the diehards such as me who will never accept it.

 

[Alan O]

fo'c's'le for forecastle takes some beating. Four letters and three apostrophes.

Yes, and you could extend it to something like "He stands atop the fo'c's'le's stairs" for four apostrophes.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

So, what we seem to be saying is that if they took enough apostrophes with them, they could make their rides much shorter...

 

[PeteXXX]

You may have fallen into the trap of taking this thread seriously.

I doubt it....

 

[snorri]

I don’t get it, stabilisers would add functional weight, why don’t pro’s use them?

You can't believe all you read, these poor pros get a bit of a bad press. Few of them actually need stabilisers, they're not all drugged up to the eyeballs you know.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Shouldn't it be stabiliser's?

 

[lane]

Never mind just for the pros - they would be an excellent safety feature for all cyclists and I urge the Government to consider legislation to make them compulsory along with other excellent safety aids such as Hi Viz and ******s

 

[snorri]

Why can't the Apostrophe Police start a new thread if they want to discuss apostrophes and ignore the topic in the thread title?

 

[Smokin Joe]

Why can't the Apostrophe Police start a new thread if they want to discuss apostrophes and ignore the topic in the thread title?

I think you should have put a comma after apostrophes and broken the sentence up a bit.

 

[snorri]

I think you should have put a comma after apostrophes and broken the sentence up a bit.

 

[raleighnut]

I think you should have put a comma after apostrophes, broken the sentence up a bit.

FTFY

 

[Alan O]

FTFY

Ooh, now we're getting close to the Oxford Comma controversy - brave man!

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Ooh, now we're getting close to the Oxford Comma controversy - brave man!

I like the Oxford comma but there's always a danger of punctures if you spread them all the place.

 

[Randomnerd]

Surely you mean “all o’er the place”?

You’re welcome.

 

[Salty seadog]

Never mind just for the pros - they would be an excellent safety feature for all cyclists and I urge the Government to consider legislation to make them compulsory along with other excellent safety aids such as Hi Viz and ******s

That could catch on.