Why do we still have so many apostrophes in English?

[Boliviabae]

It takes so much longer to type anything on the phone.

Apostrophe's were originally in place to show two words shortened into one. But the shortened versions of the words have been in the English langauge for so long now, why do we need the apostrophes.

The word 'Dont' for example, is easily understandable, without an apostrophe.

It hurts my eyes though.

Because that is correct grammar.

Because it is the right thing to do.

It was a long time ago.

Languages evolve. Apostrophes are inconvenient, and add time to typing

I don't think that any other language uses apostrophes, as much as English does.

Apostrophes can also be used to indicate possession.

Were and We’re are not the same.

Leave our apostrophes alone!

Most autocorrect will add apostrophes. Doesn't take any longer.

How come we use more than other languages do?

I dont think anyones stopping you using a different language. Or typing without apostrophes.

Some other languages have different cases to show, for example, the possessive. It's equally as complicated. Apostrophes are easy to use and everyone in school is taught how. Anyway, your spell check option on your phone will give you the option if you can't be bothered typing it.

Correct English is important.

If you joined my local FB group you'd think apostrophes no longer exist.

Except when they're trying to say 'his', then apparently it's he's 👀

On mumsnet? If you don't write perfect English on mumsnet, you will be jumped on.

I wrote a post on mumset once without apostrophes, as I was fed up of using them.

I got about ten posts from people complaining about my lack of use of apostrophes.

Apostrophe's were originally in place to show two words shortened into one.

You would need fewer if you used them correctly...

But how is it "correct English".

When the word 'It's' evolved from two words 'It is'.

Languages evolve along the way. There is no single correct version

Your whole argument seems to be “we use more apostrophes than other languages, therefore we shouldn’t have them.”

Would you prefer to be typing accents instead? A lot of languages use a variety of accents, but we don’t use any.

Leave our apostrophes alone. And if you are going to use them in your OP, please use them correctly

No apostrophe in the plural of apostrophes.

But 'its' means belongs to, so the cat had its dinner. It's means it is, so it's a sunny day. Totally different usages.

It’s and its are different words. Were and we’re are different words.

Lol. That was a typing mistake on a mobile phone.You never make a mistake on your phone?

You can see that in my second and third posts, that I spelled Apostrophes correctly.

That’s just one function of the apostrophe. The possessive apostrophe is essential to convey meaning.

Okay so let's look at a different word.

I'm.

That would make sense as Im.

There is no other ' Im' in the English language.

Have you heard of accents ?

No it wouldn't as it's not a word.

Yes I'm talking specifically about the apostrophe that shortens two words into one.

"I'm" wasn't always a word either though, was it.

Someone made it up along the way.

• apostrophes. You don’t need a capital 😊