Grammar Nazi

kuroloki-roku:

grammar-nazi:

Behold! It’s a misplaced apostrophe on Dancing with the Stars!

Edited to add: The apostrophe should be placed before the eight. The title of the episode would then be “Dancing with the Stars: ’80s Week.”

*siiiigh* No, this is actually correct. At least, it was when *I* was in high school. I don’t know why the internet decided to change this rule in the past decade. This is my #2 pet peeve. (#1 is taken by ellipses.)

The internet didn’t decide to change this rule. This was taught to me in a private elementary school as early as 1994. The following two quotes from the Chicago Manual of Style clarify that 1) the apostrophe is placed at the beginning and 2) no apostrophe appears before the s.

1. “In informal contexts the first two digits of a particular year are often replaced by an apostrophe (not an opening single quotation mark).”

2. “Decades are either spelled out (as long as the century is clear) and lowercased or expressed in numerals. No apostrophe appears between the year and the s.”

These guidelines are also stated in MLA and APA style manuals.