Do I use an apostrophe when writing "the marble's weight"?
Asked by
julia999 (
343
)
March 28th, 2010
Hello there
As far as I am aware, the “weight” belongs to the marble, and so there should be apostrophe, i.e. “the marble’s weight”.
But Word 2007 insists that it should be “marbles weight”.
Could someone please clear this dilemma up for me?
Thank you
Julia
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21 Answers
You are right; Word is wrong. Word.
Are you speaking of one marble or a group of marbles?
Both need an apostrophe but the placement differs.
Microsoft Word is wrong. Not surprisingly.
You use the apostrophe and Word 2002 agrees with us.
Expand it into “the weight of the marble.” That shows you the necessity for the apostrophe. Marble’s weight. Milo’s Nobel Prizes, Gail’s whatever.
@Buttonstc makes a good point. Marbles’ weight would mean you have all your marbles in one basket.
The bigger question is why you would let the Microsoft make you doubt yourself? Consider switching to Open Office which doesn’t complain about such things.
Yes. Apostrophe. Yes, without a doubt. Don’t take your grammatical guidance from software.
Also Word 2007 should be sunk to the bottom of the deepest sea.
Word clearly has lost its marbles in this case.
You are right both in your conclusion and reasoning, but a cleaner way to put it would be to just say “the weight of the marble”.
@Gail
Just don’t necessarily assume that I have all my marbles :D
I would write, “The weight of the marble.”
@lilikoi
Your example presumes that she is writing about one marble alone.
That really wasn’t clear at all from the info given.
Context determines usage.
The marbles’ weight.
OR
The marble’s weight.
Depending upon whether it’s one marble or a group of them together. I sort of doubt that most people are weighing one lone marble. Notice I said most. There could be exceptional folks with finely calibrated scales :)
The apostrophe was invented to shorten things; unfortunately it’s been a problem to define its proper use…but things can get cumbersome…the weight of the marbles stolen by of Lord Elgin.
I hink you’re all flogging the dead horse’s weight right now!
And maybe she is writing about marble as a rock substance such as sculptors sculpt and not one little round glass toy.
@Jeruba
You are correct. And that’s why context is king :)
All Hail, King Context.
Yep, I was referring to the one marble.
A marble’s weight is…
Thanks everyone!
Oh, and I was referring to a toy marble. I’m writing an analysis of a physics project on project motion :P
Ahh I adore Fluther – such witty responses by everyone!
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