Sandy Hobbs | Letters to Ambrose Merton # 21, 2000

Apostrophe-s and s-apostrophe are valuable ways of avoiding possible ambiguities in written English. I suspect this may be a dying view. Almost daily I meet examples of missing, misplaced or inappropriate apostrophes accompanying a concluding “s”. Student essays, shop signs, advertisements and newspapers are all responsible. Perhaps it is the will of the folk that the apostrophe should no longer be linked to the “s”. That can be a powerful will. However, I was surprised to find the National Trust, guardian of much of our cultural heritage, apparently assisting in the death.

The National trust leaflet “Runnymede: Birthplace of the Magna Carta”, explaining the character of the document tells the reader that it “defined the barons feudal obligations to the monarch“. If the apostrophe is not safe in the hands of the National Trust, who will protect it?