Apostrophe Apostle

[mysid]

I am now the proud owner of a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. The first time I read of this book's existence, I knew that I had to buy it.


I did get a slight shock on my first quick skim through the book. I'm one of those people who insist upon a comma before the "and" when listing three or more objects.
"The flag is red, white, and blue."

The author writes, "Probably the first thing you ever learn about commas, that they divide items in lists, but are not required before the and on the end."

Huh? Big sigh of relief as I continued to read. She explains that the comma before the "and" is called an Oxford Comma, is not considered standard in Britain (but is permitted), and is considered standard in the USA (where its omission is permitted). So, I have been doing it correctly--for an American.

I've only read half of the book so far, but I LOVED the chapter on apostrophes. Those poor little curves have so much work to do and are so abused. Is it really so hard to write, "Sirius is Remus's lover," instead of "Sirius is Remus' lover"? And may the militant pandas save us all from the people who write, "Sirius is Remus lover."

By the way, Sam, I loved Harry's apostrophe abuse in the latest chapter of Laocoon's Children and that Sirius comments upon the same!

Comments

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Okay, now I'm confused.

I was taught that if a word ended in any letter other than S, you added an apostrophe and an S:

EXAMPLE: James is Lily's husband.

However, if a word ended in S, you merely added an apostrophe:

EXAMPLE: Lily is James' wife.

This is what I was taught in English grammar for years. Now someone is saying that it is wrong?

As I said, I'm confused.

[mugglemommy.livejournal.com]

I saw this book today at Barnes & Noble and it caught my eye. So, worth getting?

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

Is it different for British English, though? I started using Sirius' and Remus' and James' and the rest because that's how they appear in the British editions of the first four books (not the fifth, curiously) and I was going for authenticity. *g*

[fantomeq.livejournal.com]

Hi! Small world! I'm Fantome from ffnet, who reviewed all your stories ages ago.

I'm glad to see there's a definitively correct way to use apostrophes, and that I've been doing it right. Poor me had to have a maiden name that ended in "s" that resulted in much confusion--is it the "Diltses' House" for the family Dilts?