Can someone please remove the apostrophe from the above subject?

Finally, someone has realised.  Your prize is in the post....!   

Quote from: Tank on May 10, 2017, 10:45:09 AM
Finally, someone has realised.  Your prize is in the post....!   

That prize wouldn't be an apostrophe by any chance?

   Just finished printing it out....!

Oscar, you're not from Bristol are you? 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-39459831/meet-the-grammar-vigilante-of-bristol

An apostrophe can be used to denote possession or abbreviation.
Loco's is an abbreviation of locomotives.
The apostrophe is, therefore, actually correct.
Yours pedantically,
PW

The abbreviation apostrophe doesn't seem to be in common use anymore, another example is  photos for photographs, I was taught it was photo's but then I'm just an old fart 

Quote from: PennineWagons on May 10, 2017, 12:13:53 PM
An apostrophe can be used to denote possession or abbreviation.
Loco's is an abbreviation of locomotives.
The apostrophe is, therefore, actually correct.

Not in this case it isn't.

In this case, the apostrophe is being used before the "s", indicating the word itself is a plural. Either the pluralised word is "loco", in which case "locos" is correct, or else you're abbreviating "locomotives" in which case doing so in a way that confuses the word with its possessive is unhelpful. Compare "the locomotive's number is 4468" with "the loco's number is 4468". It's quite obvious that the apostrophe is there to show the 4468 belongs to that locomotives.

Using an apostrophe to denote an abbreviation (such as ha'penny for halfpenny) is fine, provided the abbreviation doesn't get confused with something else. Given that doing this is somewhat archaic nowadays, I think that it's clearer not to write this way unless where dialect or tradition demand otherwise.

Regardless, in this situation it's clearly a "greengrocer's apostrophe" for locos and should be written without an apostrophe.

Cheers, NeMo

Also, according to the OED, the word 'loco' is actually a word in its own right, and its origin is a 19th century abbreviation. So no need to get tangled up in obscure rules. 

Quote from: silly moo on May 10, 2017, 12:23:41 PM
The abbreviation apostrophe doesn't seem to be in common use anymore, another example is  photos for photographs, I was taught it was photo's

So was I

but then I'm just an old fart 

So am I 

I'm an old fart too, but can't remember ever have being taught the use of an apostrophe to denote abbreviation (could be a problem with memory). Using the apostrophe to denote contraction or possession - yes, of course. Seems to me that ha'penny really uses the apostrophe to denote contraction between half and penny.

The usage that confused me for a long time was the difference between "it's" (contraction of "it is") and "its" which is the possessive of "it".  English is truly a wonderful language.

Webbo

Technically they're not used for abbreviation, they're used for contraction (which is subtly different), often used on road markings. I think that's what NeMo's saying anyway.

Either way, as said "loco" is a word in its own right (no apostrophe needed in the possessive "its" either, only in the contraction of "it is") and thus no apostrophe is needed in the plural, even though it has origins as part of a longer work.

Same as photo, or phone. Photo's is just wrong these days, although I accept when it was new technology and the word wasn't in common parlance it was probably different, I'm not old, so don't remember that . You don't talk about having a smart 'phone either.

While we're at it, something that belongs to James isn't James', it's James's, the former would be if it belonged to multiple people called Jame. Annoys me that one.

It's all a bit of a punctuation minefield these days. The ones that really irritate me are when there, their and they're are used wrongly and when your and you're are used wrongly too. I used to think my punctuation wasn't too bad but now I edit a club newsletter, I get my friend who is a real 'Grammar Nazi' to have a final look at it before it goes out.

"Should of" too.

Photos is a great example of how things evolve, I can't comprehend that being correct, but things change. I hope I never see the day they standardise"there" and "your", mind!

And remember...

I couldn't give a monkeys or is it monkey's...................