Letter: Dogma in the use of apostrophes
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: The correct use of the apostrophe is indeed complex, as William Powell says (Letters, 27 April); he is surely wrong to be so dogmatic in dismissing your earlier correspondent Stephen Thomas's complaint that 'Forces Sweetheart' (an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum) lacks an apostrophe.
Mr Powell's analogies are false. In 'soldier boy', the boy is not (usually) the boy of a soldier: he is a soldier; whereas the forces' sweetheart is the sweetheart of the forces. Again, in 'Army, Navy and Airforce Sweethearts', army, navy etc are standard adjectival nouns. Moreover, all Mr Powell's examples exemplify the tendency of adjectival nouns to be singular (cf 'Girl Guides').
A good test in doubtful plural possessives is to substitute an irregular plural. A true and useful analogy would then be 'children's favourite': one might conceivably say 'the child's favourite', but never 'children favourite'. The forces' sweetheart needs its - her - apostrophe. And you, sir, should take 100 lines for dubbing this a matter of punctuation rather than spelling.
Yours faithfully,
RICHARD ABRAM
Literary Editor
Classical Division
EMI Records (UK)
London, W1
30 April
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments