20 Dec A Grammar Blog–apostrophes cont’d.
Posted at 20:05h
in Uncategorized
A sign in front of the triage station at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Toronto says: Please respect others privacy. Stand back.
The request is a welcome one, but there is one small thing missing. An apostrophe. By “others”, the hospital presumably means the people who are talking to the triage nurse, so clearly, “others” is plural. Used in the sign, it is also possessive: we are asked to respect the privacy that belongs to others. So the word should be spelled with an apostrophe after the s: Please respect others’ privacy.