58. Optional Apostrophe Endings

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In some contexts an apostrophe ending on a noun can be dropped without much change of meaning

THE REMOVABILITY OF APOSTROPHE ENDINGS FROM A NOUN

The apostrophe ending on nouns may be -’s or -s’. It has various meanings, but one especially highlighted in coursebooks says someone or something represented by a noun owns something represented by a noun nearby. This other noun could come first (see 247. Exotic Grammar Structures 6, #4), but a more common position, and the one of interest here, is straight after. Examples are Alexander’s horse (= the horse owned by Alexander), Tesco’s supermarkets, cats’ paws and customers’ accounts.

What the books rarely say is that placing the same two nouns together in the same order without the apostrophe ending can often express the same meaning. The apostrophe ending can be dropped quite easily in this way from two of the above examples, leaving Tesco supermarkets and customer accounts.

Nouns without an apostrophe before another noun are very like adjectives (see 38. Nouns Used Like Adjectives). Two of their key features are that they must normally be singular and they generally have no influence on the choice of a/the before them, this being determined by the later noun.

Apostrophe nouns are different, since they can easily be plural and do usually determine the use (or non-use) of an article before them. One consequence of this difference is that sometimes dropping an apostrophe ending also requires a change of article. This is the case, for example, with Manila’s climate (no article because of the proper noun Manila), which in the non-apostrophe use becomes the Manila climate (the required by singular countable climate – see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”).

The problem raised by the optionality of some apostrophe endings is, of course, how to recognise it. It is this question that the present post seeks to address.

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THE MEANINGS OF APOSTROPHE ENDINGS

It is hardly surprising that apostrophe endings can express other meanings than “possession”, given the variety of alternative meanings that other possession words like HAVE and of can have (see 116. Rarer Uses of HAVE and 160. Uses of “of”). Surveying the various meanings of apostrophe endings is a necessary preliminary to identifying optional usage.

Most of the meanings are recognised by mainstream grammar descriptions. Many are the same as the meanings listed in this blog in 136. Types of Description by Nouns. They are:

A.  PROPERTY-OWNER: Arsenal’s stadium; passengers’ belongings; John’s car.

B.  COMPONENT-OWNER: cats’ paws; Shakespeare’s beard; Ford’s employees; a summer’s day.

C.  CHARACTERISTIC-HOLDER: the sky’s colour; water’s boiling point; gardens’ beauty; iron’s density; Gandhi’s sincerity; the Beatles’ haircut (the second noun is a feature or property of what the first noun represents. For more on properties, see 163. Ways of Naming Properties).

D.  LOCATION: Hong Kong’s traffic; The Pacific’s currents; Manila’s climate; Kenya’s President.

E.  SOURCE: the sun’s rays; the BBC’s programmes; cows’ milk; France’s wines.

F.  AUTHOR: Archimedes’ Principle; Down’s Syndrome; Shaw’s plays; Halley’s Comet.

G.  BENEFICIARY: Fathers’ Day; The Champions’ League;  a visitors’ entrance;  a heroes’ welcome;  Nelson’s Column;  a People’s Charter;  St Paul’s Cathedral (the two nouns can be reversed with for placed between them).

H.  ACCOMPANIMENT: Newton’s time; the earth’s history; Mandela’s wife; The Colosseum’s fame; women’s rights; a plant’s environment; writer’s cramp (the second noun names something that accompanies the person or thing named by the first but is not a possession, part or property of it. The last of the examples is slightly different in that the second noun is not an automatic accompaniment of the first – some writers do not suffer from cramp).

I.  ACTOR: Microsoft’s rise; the panda’s survival; television’s influence; the aircraft’s descent (the first noun says who/what executes an action indicated by the second. For a related structure, see 49. Prepositions after Action Nouns 2).

J.  OBJECT: Pompeii’s destruction; London’s portrayal; the atmosphere’s pollution; America’s discovery; Newsweek’s embarrassment; Ronaldo’s transfer; Lennon’s assassin; the UN’s supporters; a bicycle’s owner (the first noun names the object of an action; the second noun names either the action or a type of person responsible for it).

K.  TIME DURATION: an hour’s wait; a moment’s hesitation; three days’ delay.

L.  TIME OF OCCURRENCE: yesterday’s news; July’s edition; Saturday’s events; an hour’s time.

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OPTIONAL AND NON-OPTIONAL APOSTROPHE ENDINGS

An optional apostrophe ending is one whose removal is grammatically possible and does not seem to alter the meaning, as in customers’ accounts. Some apostrophe endings are not optional because their removal is not possible and/or does change the meaning significantly.

An example of a phrase with a non-optional ending is France’s wines (one cannot say *France wines); one whose meaning changes if the ending is removed is a weekend’s work (= “work lasting a weekend”, in contrast to weekend work, which means “work suited to a weekend”).

Here are some tentative generalizations about the optionality of possessive endings.

1. Non-Optional Endings

Of the meanings listed above, the following seem particularly unlikely to allow removal of the apostrophe ending:

– CHARACTERISTIC-HOLDER (C): The apostrophe ending usually seems necessary if the first noun represents an individual person or thing, like Gandhi’s or the garden’s. If, by contrast, the first noun represents a general group or concept, then an apostrophe ending may become more optional (though still more likely). Possible non-apostrophe expressions derivable from the list above are the water boiling point and garden beauty.

– AUTHOR (F). The only time when the apostrophe seems droppable is when the author is responsible for a group of offerings, as in Shakespeare’s play/plays (we can say a/the Shakespeare play and Shakespeare plays). In contrast, Archimedes’ Principle, Pythagoras’ Theorem, Halley’s Comet and Down’s Syndrome appear likely to keep their apostrophe endings (especially the last).

– BENEFICIARY (G). Again, the apostrophe ending usually seems necessary. The only example above where it is optional is the visitors’ entrance, the alternative being a/the visitor entrance.

– ACCOMPANIMENT (H). Most but not all expressions in this category appear not to have an optional apostrophe ending – we cannot say *the Mandela wife, *The Colosseum fame or *woman rights. The exceptions seem to involve first nouns that are not human and lack a capital letter (see 62. Choices with Capital Letters). Two such expressions in the list above are the earth’s history (allows earth history) and a plant’s environment (a/the plant environment).

– TIME DURATION (K). Only the last of the above-listed phrases can drop its apostrophe (= a three-day delay). It seems to be the inclusion of a number word before the time noun that generally enables this (see 258. Saying How Long Something Lasts, #7).

– TIME OF OCCURRENCE (L). Dropping the apostrophe ending of yesterday’s, today’s and tomorrow’s before a noun is not possible. It must also stay on time expressions like Tuesday’s or this semester’s or next week’s, and within an hour’s (minute’s, day’s etc.) time (= “one hour (etc.) from now”: see 293. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 4, #1). However, in other time nouns an apostrophe does seem optional. Examples are Saturday’s events (= the Saturday events), July’s edition (= the July edition) and the twentieth century’s wars (= twentieth-century wars).

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2. Optional Endings

All of the other categories above seem to allow a great deal of choice about the use of an apostrophe ending. I offer the following observations.

– PROPERTY-OWNER (A): The nature of ownership suggests that owners will mostly be living creatures. They do not always have an optional apostrophe ending. They usually have one when the first noun names a group (Tesco Supermarkets, the Arsenal Stadium, passenger belongings). If the first noun refers to an individual, the apostrophe can still be optional, but only when the overall meaning is publicly well-known (e.g. Churchill’s cigars = the Churchill cigars; Pavlov’s dog = the Pavlov dog). However, if an adjective equivalent of the first noun exists, it may be preferred to the noun (the Pope’s shoes = the Papal shoes). Overall meanings that are not well-known, such as John’s car and Shakespeare’s hat, usually need their apostrophe ending.

– COMPONENT-OWNER (B). Once again, the apostrophe ending looks especially optional when the first noun names a group (Ford employees, cat paws). If an individual is being named, the apostrophe ending may normally be necessary, its absence either impossible or suggestive of a different meaning. Consider, for example, Shakespeare’s beard. One could conceivably say the Shakespeare beard, but this seems to describe a kind of beard rather than the exact one that Shakespeare had, wearable by anyone. Examples where the apostrophe ending seems unlikely ever to be dropped include Shakespeare’s fingers and Jesus’ blood. Presumably these could never form categories.

– LOCATION (D). Apostrophe endings showing this usually seem optional, e.g. (the) Hong Kong traffic, Pacific currents.

– SOURCE (E). This category resembles A and B above. The apostrophe ending is usually optional when the first noun represents a group (e.g. BBC programmes, cow milk). It if represents an individual or thing, the public fame of the overall meaning may be relevant: the sun’s rays can become sun rays but the cow’s milk has a different meaning from the general cow milk. In the list above, France’s wines is exceptional. Perhaps the existence of the adjective equivalent French rules out *France wines.

– ACTOR (I). Most apostrophe endings in this category seem optional, though in some cases they seem preferable. Easily-obtained alternatives to above-listed examples include panda survival and the aircraft descent. Not so possible-sounding is the Microsoft rise: to avoid the apostrophe ending you normally have to say the rise of Microsoft. Perhaps the human and/or group nature of Microsoft explains why.

– OBJECT (J). Apostrophe endings seem especially optional on object nouns when the noun after them refers to someone who performs an action, rather than to an action itself (it is easy enough to say the Lennon assassin, UN supporters, the bicycle owner). With action nouns, apostrophes seem more likely: we cannot say *the Pompeii destruction, *the London portrayal, *the America discovery or *the atmosphere pollution (though apostrophes can still be avoided with of – see 31. Prepositions after “Action” Nouns 1).

It may be that object nouns accompanying action nouns are especially likely to have an apostrophe ending when they are associated with a particular rather than general time (as Pompeii etc. above are). In generalised expressions, the alternative structures seem more necessary (e.g. electricity generation for all electricity at all times).

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3. The Role of Fixed Expressions

Fixed expressions are particular words combined together so often in a particular way that paraphrasing them sounds strange (see the discussions of “collocation” in 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words and 164. Fixed Preposition Phrases).

Apostrophe endings in fixed expressions will of their nature, therefore, not be optional. They occur in many of the categories above, even ones normally associated with optional apostrophe endings. Examples are Fathers’ Day, a moment’s hesitation, Down’s syndrome, women’s rights and writer’s cramp.

57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing

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Indirect questions have multiple forms and uses

CONSTRUCTION OF INDIRECT QUESTIONS

Indirect questions are a familiar topic in English courses, but the full range of their forms and uses is rarely described. The commonly-perceived main use – reporting other people’s questions – is certainly not the only one. Indeed, the non-reporting uses of indirect questions are probably more numerous than those of other types of indirect speech (see 127. When to Use Indirect Speech).

This post first examines the numerous formal features of indirect questions, and then describes the various uses, particularly in formal writing. It also highlights a number of common errors.

The form of indirect questions differs in multiple ways from that of direct ones. Compare the underlined words in the following sentence with their direct equivalent where is the library? 

(a) Visitors will enquire where the library is. 

The special standard features of indirect questions that this example illustrates are¹:

1. A starting question word (where…), without that in front.

2. Ordinary word order: no part of the verb before the subject (…the library is).

3. Occupation of a noun position inside a longer sentence.

4. Adjacency (when in a sentence) to wording indicating asking, explaining or knowing / not knowing.

5. Absence of a question mark at the end.

Point 1 is relevant because indirect questions need a question word more often than direct ones. The main reason, of course, is the fact that direct questions expecting a “yes” or “no” answer start with a verb, rather than the question word whether or if that indirect ones need (see 99. Meanings of “whether… or…”). A rare type of indirect question that has no question word is the equivalent of direct What about…? questions: made just with about… after a verb like ASK (see 274. Questions with a Hidden Meaning, #8).

Point 2 implies that indirect questions always contain a grammatical subject. In fact, there is one kind that does not (see 105. Questions with a “to” Verb).

Point 3 means indirect question sentences usually need other words besides the question, including a verb. These words can go before or after the question (see 219, Wording next to Indirect Questions), or even inside it as a parenthesis (see 183. Statements between Commas). Typically, however, they go before, with no comma after them. In (a), they are illustrated by visitors will enquire…. For information about indirect questions by themselves, see 178. How to Write a Heading and 207. Exotic Grammar Structures 4, #4.

Point 4 is illustrated in (a) by the asking verb enquire. Asking words indicate an intention to acquire knowledge or understanding. Other verb examples are EXAMINE, INVESTIGATE and WONDER. Explaining words indicate intention to communicate knowledge or understanding. Example verbs are DEMONSTRATE, EXPLAIN, SHOW and TELL. Verbs indicating knowing or not knowing are illustrated by KNOW, REALISE, UNDERSTAND and BE MYSTIFIED.

Questions linked to an explaining or knowing word seem always to be indirect. Here is an example with the verb DEMONSTRATE:

(b) This experiment DEMONSTRATES how dangerous the substance is.

For more examples of verbs that can accompany an indirect question (see 150. Verb Choices with Indirect Speech). The main alternatives to verbs are nouns and adjectives:

(c) The ISSUE is why bees are less numerous today.

(d) It is UNKNOWN where Homer lived.

In (c), issue is an asking noun. In (d), unknown is an adjective, typical before an indirect question in sentences starting It is… (see 88. Exotic Grammar Structures 1, #8).

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USES OF INDIRECT QUESTIONS IN FORMAL WRITING

Like all indirect speech, indirect questions in formal writing have both reporting and non-reporting uses.

1. Indirect Questions Used for Reporting

Indirect questions are not the only means of reporting a question – direct questions can do it too (see 79. Fitting Quotations into a Text). However, the indirect form is more usual in formal writing. The reason is that, like indirect speech as a whole, it is the default reporting option: always preferred unless there is a special reason for keeping the exact original wording, such as its cleverness, conciseness or difficulty to paraphrase (see 127. When to Use Indirect Speech).

Indirect questions are particularly necessary when original question wording has to be summarised, guessed or translated. In all of these situations, the original wording is by definition different from that of the report. Consider this:

(e) Columbus wondered whether China was reachable from the east.

The exact wording of Columbus’s question cannot be presented because it is very probably not known at all, it was anyway in a different language (Columbus spoke Italian), and the question was probably asked many times in many different ways. Literary writers are allowed to invent original words for direct quotation, but that is not appropriate in professional writing.

A particularly common source of indirect questions used for reporting is academic literature reviews, since these are by definition about the thoughts of large numbers of other writers. An indirect reporting question in a literature review might look like this:

(f) Smith (2014: p. 49) clearly explains why sports personalities turn to performance-enhancing drugs.

For advice on naming an original speaker in a literature review – Smith (2014: p.49) in (f) – see 76. Tenses of Citation verbs.

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2. Indirect Questions not Used for Reporting

In spoken English, direct questions are often considered an impolite way of asking other people for information. Indirect questions are a means of sounding politer. Here is an example:

(g) Could you tell me where the library is?

The question mark at the end here does not mean that the question is direct – it is necessitated by the part of the sentence outside the underlined indirect question. Moreover, the question is not a reported one, since there is no earlier first utterance of it – this is the first utterance. For more about the way politeness influences language choices, see 166. Appropriacy in Professional English. 

In formal writing, non-reporting indirect questions have various uses. Inviting a response from the addressee, in the manner of (g), is a feature of assessment questions, especially essay-writing ones. The wording before the question in these will usually be an imperative verb, e.g. show how… or explain why… (see 94. Essay Instruction Words).

Another common non-reporting use in formal writing is topic-introducing, typically at the start of a paragraph:

(h) The question is why bees are less numerous today.

The suggestion here is that the writer’s own answer to the question follows immediately (see 297. Types of Response to a Question, #5). For an additional example, see 138. Test your Command of Grammar 1, #1. Topic-introducing indirect questions can also drop their partner speech/ thought wording (underlined above) so as to become headings instead (see 178. How to Write a Heading).

Direct questions with a topic-introducing purpose (e.g. Why are bees less numerous today?) are also possible in formal writing as either a first sentence or a heading, but they are quite rare because of their less formal tone.

Thirdly, non-reporting indirect questions are common in formal writing after classifying uses of according to or in terms of (see 162. Writing about Classifications).

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THE LINGUISTIC VARIABILITY OF TOPIC-INTRODUCING INDIRECT QUESTIONS

There are various ways of writing a topic-introducing indirect question. Some involve the words accompanying the question and some the question itself.

1. Wording Alongside the Question

This wording often involves the idea of I or we, words not usually associated with formal writing (see 46. How to Avoid “I”, “We” and “You”). Here are some ways of avoiding them:

(h) This essay/report will consider why…

(i) It is (now) necessary to consider why…

(j) Consideration will (now) be given to why…

(k) The question is why bees are less numerous today.

(l) … raises the question of why bees…

In (h), this + noun replaces I as the subject of the asking verb consider. In (i), the asking verb is in the to form, enabling its subject to be dropped. In (j)-(l), the asking nouns consideration and question have replaced the verb consider.

There are numerous synonyms of key words above: important or useful instead of necessary (see 219. Wording next to Indirect Questions); matter or issue instead of question (see 287. Speech and Thought Nouns, #1); and an investigation conducted into… or an examination made of… instead of consideration given to… (see 173. “Do Research” or “Make Research”?).

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2. Wording of the Question Itself

Most question words in an indirect question can be paraphrased with a noun, for example reason for why, people for who, and way for how (see 185. Noun Synonyms of Question Words). Examples are:

(m) It is necessary to understand the reason for bees being less numerous today.

(n) This essay will examine ways of controlling (the control of) traffic growth.

Indirect questions where noun substitution is not normally possible include those starting with whether; those ending an it statement, e.g. it is intriguing where… (see 88. Exotic Grammar Structures 1, #8); those with substantially direct question form (see 183. Statements between Commas); and those after WONDER.

Very occasionally, an equivalent noun is preferable to a question word. This is the case, for example, with indirect questions at the start of a sentence or used as a heading (see 178. How to Write a Heading, #1). For a general overview of question words, see 285. Complexities of Question Words.

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PRACTICE EXERCISE: REPLACING QUESTION WORDS

To finish, here is an exercise to practise using question nouns. How could the following sentences be reworded so that they have no question word? Answers are provided afterwards, and there is also relevant information elsewhere within these pages in 185. Noun Synonyms of Question Words.

1. It is necessary to know what an indirect question is.

2. Footballers must learn when it is best to pass the ball.

3. A major issue was how many attempts to allow.

4. A problem is deciding whether help should be permitted.

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ANSWERS

1. It is necessary to know the nature/definition of an indirect question.

2. Footballers must learn the best time/moment to pass the ball.

3. A major issue was the number of attempts to allow.

4. A problem is deciding the permissibility of help. 

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¹ An additional feature is sometimes found in indirect questions like (a): the need to adjust pronouns, verb tenses and the like to fit the time and place of the writer. For example, if the indirect question in (a) had our library, the corresponding direct question would probably have your instead.

56. Comparing with “Like” and “Unlike”

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Unlike coal power, solar energy is non-polluting

Comparisons with “like” and “unlike” usually suggest the noun idea after them is familiar to the reader

THE VARIETY OF COMPARISON LANGUAGE IN ENGLISH

To compare is to point out similarities and/or differences. The prepositions Like and unlike are obvious means of doing this (though like does not always have this role, being also a common introducer of examples – see 53. “As”, “Like” and “Such As”).

English has numerous other ways of indicating a similarity or difference. Similarities can be shown with akin, alike, comparable, similar, the same, (just) as, both, neither, likewise, similarly, mirrors, reflect(s) and resemble(s); difference language includes but, whereas, contrast(s), differ(s), vary, different(ly), dissimilar(ly), less, more, however, in contrast and on the other hand.

However, the uses of like and unlike seem to be especially problematic for  writers of comparisons. The reason seems to be more their meaning than their grammar. This post takes a brief look first at the grammar of these two prepositions, and then considers in more detail what is special about their meaning.

For advice on using the similarity and difference expressions listed above, see 149. Saying How Things are Similar and 216. Indicating Differences. Also relevant are 82. Common Errors in Making Comparisons,  87. “Same As” versus “Same That” and 115. Surveying Numerical Data.

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GRAMMATICAL POSSIBILITIES IN COMPARING WITH “like” AND “unlike”

In written English, like and unlike are mostly prepositions, which means they form a phrase with a following noun (without a verb) in order to expand the meaning of another part of their sentence. Unusually for prepositions, however, their strength can be indicated with a precceding adverb like just, quite, rather or very (see 262. Adverbs that Describe a Preposition, #2).

The sentence part that (un)like phrases may be associated with is sometimes a previous noun, in which case the un(like) phrase will be adjective-like, and sometimes something else, when the use will be adverb-like. The adjective use of like and unlike phrases may be illustrated as follows:

(a) An illness (un)like influenza was caused by the new virus.

(b) The illness caused by the new virus was (un)like influenza.

Here, influenza is the noun that un(like) as a preposition needs after it, while illness is the one whose meaning the un(like) phrase is adding to in an adjective-like way. In (a), unlike comes immediately after illness, while in (b) it is further after and separated by the link verb was. These are the two typical positions of a preposition phrase acting like an adjective (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions, #2).

The adverb use of un(like) looks like this:

(c) Coal power pollutes LIKE motor vehicles.

(d) Coal power pollutes, LIKE motor vehicles. 

These are adverb uses because there is no preceding noun with which (un)like can be associated: none immediately before it and none acting as the subject of a link verb like BE.

In (c), the non-separation of the like phrase from the rest of the sentence by a comma means the comparison is focussed on the main verb in the sentence (pollutes): we are being told by means of the comparison not the simple fact that coal power pollutes (which the writer of such a sentence could easily expect the reader to know already) but how the polluting occurs (i.e resembling the process of motor vehicle pollution). Like thus means “in a similar way to”.

In (d), on the other hand, the comma means that the comparison is being made with everything outside the like phrase. We are being told by means of the comparison with motor vehicles the basic fact that coal power pollutes – this fact not being expected to be known already. Like means “just as”. This kind of adverbial like phrase could also start its sentence, with a comma after it instead of before.

The two adverb uses of un(like) phrases mirror the way some ordinary adverbs can be used in two different ways, as in the following examples from 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs:

(e) Write your name clearly in the box.

(f) Clearly, people trafficking is a serious problem.

In (e), the absence of a comma makes clearly a “manner” adverb saying how to write your name, while in (f) the comma makes it a “sentence” adverb commenting on the clarity of the entire following statement (see 121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs).

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WHEN TO COMPARE WITH “Like” AND “Unlike”

The special meaning carried by un(like) in addition to that of similarity or difference is the writer’s belief that the noun idea after it is already familiar to the reader. Thus, in (a) and (b) the familiarity of influenza is assumed, and in (c) and (d) the pollution caused by motor vehicles is. The assumption of familiarity is certainly not present in every comparison expression. Consider the following contrast statement:

(g) Coal power pollutes but/whereas solar energy does not.

Here, the reader is being assumed to have no previous familiarity with either of the two compared points.

Saying something that the reader knows already is perfectly acceptable if done for a suitable purpose (see 24. Good and Bad Repetition and 156. Mentioning what the Reader Knows Already). Introducing a familiar idea with (un)like has the suitable purpose of enabling a new point to be compared with a familiar one in order to make the new one clearer.

There is at least one situation, however, where the idea after (un)like is not inevitably one that the reader is expected to know about already – it may carry a different special meaning. This happens when (un)like is at the end of a sentence after a comma, as in the following:

(h) Coal power pollutes, unlike solar energy.

Without the comma here, the sentence would again be comparing a new idea – the way in which coal power pollutes – with a familiar one – the way in which solar energy pollutes (an unlikely meaning because solar power is generally considered a “clean” energy source).

With the comma, however, the comparison is often between two behaviours that are both assumed to be previously unknown to the reader, either asserting their similarity or (as here) saying they are opposite (i.e. that solar energy is non-polluting). The additional special effect that (un)like then has is either stylistic (the usage seems more likely in newspapers than formal writing) or suggestive that the idea after it will be discussed in more detail in the next sentence(s).

This suggestion entails that the further detail must be present in the next sentence(s). In other words, ending a sentence with a comma + (un)like just to tell the reader about a similarity or difference without saying anything further about it is not appropriate in formal writing (see 82. Common Errors in Making Comparisons). To do that, different wording is necessary, for example replacing like with and so/and neither + auxiliary verb and replacing unlike with but/whereas + auxiliary (…but solar energy does not above).