potatoe's anyone?

[mint]

Wot, no more grocers' apostrophes?  No more potatoe's?

[url]https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/dec/01/laziness-has-won-apostrophe-society-admits-its-defeat[/url]

[woolybanana]

Time the thing was put to death, silly nonsense!?

[mint]

OF COURSE it's not nonsense.

If you wrote the dogs bark, we'd know you had more than one dog.  But if you wrote the dog's bark, we might think, mistakenly in your case,  that you only had one dog[geek]

[woolybanana]

Context is all. Actually, my dear nimt dog’s bark is very improbable! How about Norman’s temper or Normans temper. Nooooooooo, please Bobo, not a bunch of them, all grumpy!

[mint]

Norman, grumpy?  Surely not[;-)]

Unless his barrel's damp or maybe his barrels are all damp?

[woolybanana]

The days when Norman could let you have it from either barrel are long gone, I am afraid. Nowadays he just sits there begging and chanting, like Ghandi, in longjohns. Apparently there have been complaints as he frightens passing kids.

[Hoddy]

This reminds me of a tale a colleague used tell about explaining to her class, with examples on the board, the different uses of the apostrophe. When she had finished she said,"Any questions ?" A little girl at the back asked, "Miss, have you got a dog ?"

[woolybanana]

?