'S Wonderful!

'S wonderful! 'S marvelous! You should care for me! 'S awful nice ! 'S paradise! 'S what I love to see! George and Ira Gershwin knew a thing or two about apostrophes: In addition to indicating possessives, apostrophes indicate an omitted letter, such as in contractions like didn’t, isn’t, and mustn’t. In each of these cases the apostrophe lets the reader know the letter o is omitted. Sometimes an apostrophe is used in place of several letters, such as in int’l and gov’t. So, for instance: ‘Tis (it is) the season to look forward to new spring clothes, said Cyril, sounding ridiculous. We must be in ‘n’ out (in and out) of the shop as quickly as possible, screamed Aubrey.    The magazine was full of fashion dos and don'ts ("do nots"), thought Giles. 'S wonderful ! 'S marvelous! ‘S easy!

Note: Recently I corrected "do's and don'ts" (as noted above, it's dos and don'ts - more than one do and more than one don't) and when I did I received a call from my colleague saying that while I might be right (might be?), she preferred "do's and don'ts" because, as she put it, "it looks better." Darling (I thought to myself), grammar isn't about looks, it's about clarity and precision and silently agreed upon rules that allow us to communicate with one another easily. Sure, lots of things are up for discussion and over time things change, but the ins 'n' outs of most dos and don'ts don't.

Comments

[Jenny]

Came upon your site when I was searching for the definitive style for "do's and don'ts." According to the online AP Stylebook's Ask the Editor section:

Please tell us how to properly treat "the haves and the have nots." Is there an apostrophe in "not's"? And does the AP treat "dos and dont's" – from Sausalito, CA on Thu, Aug 16, 2007
Haves and have-nots ... do's and don'ts.
is this correct -- do's and don'ts – from dallas on Wed, Jan 10, 2007
Yes, AP style is "do's and don'ts."
Why, oh why, is the AP style "do's and don'ts" ?? It's internally inconsistent with itself, and it always, always, always looks like a copy editor has just made a mistake. – from DC on Wed, Jan 10, 2007
"Do's and don'ts" is common usage and AP style primarily because other punctuation looks and reads worse: dos? donts?
In an answer to one of your frequently answered questions (from Attleboro, MA on Wed, Aug 23, 2006) you stated that AP styles the phrase as "do's and don'ts." Was the first apostrophe a typo? If not, could you explain what that apostrophe is a contraction of? Best wishes, David – from Walla Walla, WA on Wed, Mar 21, 2007
It's not a contraction, of course, but the apostrophe here is an aid in reading.

[Dan Santow]

Jenny, thank you for your great comment. As for both “dos and don’ts” and “have and have nots,” in both cases there would be no apostrophe since neither dos nor nots is possessive, just plural.