Enough with the apostrophes, already

Okay, there are only two more reasons we might want to use an apostrophe, although these are so similar it seems unnecessary to treat them as distinct.

 First, we need to use an apostrophe when we indicate the plurals of letters and numerals.

Sarah got three B's and two A's on her report card.
Obviously, she's been successful in learning her A,B,C's and her 1,2,3's.

We also need an apostrophe to indicate the plurals of words referred to as words. This is a little trickier.

Think about all the in's and out's we could manage to pull off.

The memo contained three her's which should be changed to their's. (How's this for confusing? Normally we would never write her's or their's, as most possessive pronouns don't require an apostrophe).

Or how about his one?

I'm tired of all the can't's in your excuse.

Best not to go there, I think.

And so now I'm done with apostrophes. Next post I'll run a quick review (good pedagogical practice, I'm told) and move on to something new. (No hints. I want to surprise everyone).

But if you think you haven't had enough of apostrophes, relax. I'll have to revisit them when I discuss pronouns.

Until then...