Malcolm Wood, an English teacher in North Yorkshire, England, did a double take recently as he passed by a quiet road, St. Mary’s Walk. The street’s new sign had no apostrophe. The change, part of the ...

Until recently, apostrophes were used to form the plurals of abbreviations (MA's), dates (1980's) and words or characters serving as words (if's and but's). Today we don't use an apostrophe with the & ...

'The apostrophe's chequered history poses enormous challenges not only for learners of English, but clearly for native speakers too'. Photo: Alamy What did the apostrophe ever do to deserve this? To ...

In French, to show that someone possesses something, you use their word for “of,” which is “de”: La plume de ma tante. Spanish works the same way: La venganza de Moctezuma. Italian, too: Buca di Beppo ...