It happens to the best of us.

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SNOOPY, NO

NOT THE EXTRANEOUS APOSTROPHE

from The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974

15 thoughts on “It happens to the best of us.”

  1. The one that always confused me was “deer.” It’s both singular and plural. So how do you distinguish between the two when reading about “the deer’s hooves?” Nouns which pluralise by adding an “s,” can simply put the apostrophe after the “s,” but this doesn’t apply to “deer.”

    Can you help me Doctor Mike?????

  3. Wait… that’s not extraneous is it? It’s possessive. “It” is in place of the dog’s name.

  4. Phantasm: possessive pronouns don’t include apostrophes. (Think of his or their.)

    It’s, with an apostrophe, is a contraction.

    But I still say Snoopy spells and punctuates pretty well for a dog.

  6. In light of the Ol’ Black Joe drawing lesson that Popeye gives in the Plunder Island collection, I think that I’m willing to forgive this one.

  12. Phantasm: “It’s” means “it is,” which is a contraction. “Its” means “belonging to it,” which is a possessive pronoun (possessive pronouns don’t get apostrophes).

  13. Well, MY question is, is this the same dog that gets adopted by a couple and named Good Authority? And are any of these people Dorothy “Dee” Fledermaus?

  14. I was more distracted by the failure to give all the necessary punctuation in “Snoopy, no not the extraneous apostrophe”. (Better: “Snoopy, no! Not the extraneous apostrophe!”)

  15. “O,” a sentence does not take terminal punctuation when it has a comic panel above or below it. This rule does not apply to captions within comic panels. Read your Fowler’s Modern English Usage, willya?

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