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.

Misogynistic, much?

Every time I see someone insist on ‘correct grammar’ in a situation such as this, I feel obliged to point out that spelling, punctuation and grammar are three separate and distinct things. Apostrophes are punctuation. Grammar relates to sentence construction / syntax etc.

OP, you are right. We used to use a lot of dashes in the 1800s and now I barely see them. Punctuation is not a matter of social etiquette; it’s designed for clarity. If things are perfectly clear without it then there’s a case for not needing to use it. I think contractions are an excellent example of this as we all know ‘don’t’ means ‘do not’. I think possessive apostrophes are also a kind of contraction: I read that ‘John’s book’ was once written ‘John, his book’ when people put their names in their books. We do need those apostrophes as plurals and possessives can be confusing.

Hopefully, I have made no errors in my post given that I started it by correcting someone but I’ve had wine so that’s my excuse.

Calling women cows and bitches is certainly sexist, even if it's not misogynistic.

• Pauses in speech:
• When reading aloud, a comma often indicates a point where you would naturally pause or take a breath. However, it's not always a perfect one-to-one correlation between spoken pause and written comma.

No it's not.

Bitch has been used for an extremely long time as insult.

Source?
A lot depends on the quality of your source

It's strange how you don't like me insulting others.

Yet you were quite happy for ten posters to abuse and insult me.

You're an absolute hypocrite.

I think it is misogynistic as it's using female animal terms.

So? Women didn't have the right to vote for an extremely long time. It doesn't mean that this wasn't sexist!

I don't care.

Well then why don't you take it up with everyone who uses the word bitch.

Because it is an extremely common insult and a lot of people use it.

At women, not generally at men. So, misogynistic.

And also using female terms as an insult, see also cunt, is incredibly misogynistic. As if the worst thing you can be is female.

There are insults that are used only for men too.

And in the league table of 'worst insults' , they barely reach league 2. All the most offensive ones, and both sexes have been known to use them towards both sexes, relate to female qualities/body parts.

No one actually called you anything bar someone who couldn't or wouldn't use grammar correctly.

You cannot be serious.

Maybe not less intelligent, but certainly less educated

Didn't know about the es. That's fascinating. Thanks for sharing.

I'm loving this thread. It never occurred to me that flu could be short for influenza.

The way our language is written isn’t up for debate. If you are too lazy to use correct grammar, don’t complain if people think that you are.

Typing this in MN, I notice that it autocorrects dont to don’t anyway, so no need to even think about it.

Spelling, context and grammar matter. There is no excuse - you are not Humpty Dumpty, and a word used incorrectly does not mean exactly what you choose it to! If everyone thought that way, communication would become impossible!

Hahaha. The irony!

You used an incorrect spelling in your post.

It's "feelings", not "feeling".

You said that people with bad spelling have low intelligence...

Then you spelled a word wrong.

So funny.

Of course flu is short for influenza. I thoufht that everyone knew that.

Another nasty, pathetic, disgusting post.

By the way you made a punctuation mistake.

There should be a full stop at the end of your sentence.