If you’re still struggling with apostrophe use check out apostrophe.me for a series of flow charts and nicely explained graphics. Here are some of them. There are a couple more.
Here’s the golden rule of apostrophe use.
[...] I’m friends with some of her friends on Facebook. And they’re all like “OMG, OMG!!! I’d totally die without my phone? I totes* need to update my Facebook Status with every meaningless thought” and “where’s my pancakes?”… though that’s sans punctuation including apostrophes. Because they don’t know how to use them. [...]
But the rule "Is it indicating possession? Use an apostrophe" is not sufficiently qualified in this chart.
So following that rule, I would right "hi's apostrophic flow chart didn't contain enough qualifications to make it's meaning accurate or clear."
Also, I quite like signs advertising "CD's and DVD's" because they remind me that the letters 'isc' have been omitted.
The English language is far too stressful.
There's an error on that flow chart.
It should be "90s' fashion" not "90's fashion" UNLESS you are talking about the specific year 1990, rather than the entire decade. But it's probably in reference to the decade, in which case it's denoting a plural -hence "90s"- and then a possessive of that plural, hence "90s' ".
I would think they are talking about 1990 – because Hammer pants weren't around for that much longer…
Also, the apostrophe after the s rule is not actually a hard and fast rule. It could be 90s's and still be correct.
Gordon,
There are a few more bits to the flow chart if you follow the link… but I would point out that for consistent use of the apostrophe in DVDs it should be D'V'D's. And that's not pretty, nor does it fit with any rules for acronymising words…
Nathan, where did you get this from originally? I can't find the attribution link and i'd like to look at some of their other stuff. thanks.