Re: [Pan-users] blooper on pan.rebelbase.com

[Toby Inkster]

On 23 Sep 2002 17:36:06 +0200
Søren Boll Overgaard <address@hidden> wrote:

| On Mon, 2002-09-23 at 16:47, gaw zay wrote:
|  
| > I see it, you forgot to add an apostrope up there, it should be
| > "pan's website".
| 
| AFAIK, putting an apostrophe is short for "pan is website", which is not
| what I meant.

Actually the apostrophe-s is the gentive (showing ownership) form of the noun, 
so it is required in this case. If you leave out the apostrophe, you are 
referring to multiple pans. If you add the apostrophe *after* the s, you are 
doing both -- referring to something that belongs to multiple pans.

So "pan's" can refer to something belonging to pan, although it can also be a 
contraction for "pan is."

Why is the apostrophe used to show ownership? In old English, one would say 
"panis" instead of "pan's", which is a weird Latin throw-back. The "i" got 
replaced by an apostrophe over time.

As a side note, another error: Gaw Zay left the "h" out of "apostrophe."

-- 
Toby A Inkster BSc ARCS
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