What’s the apostrophe for?
September 27th, 2007Great column by Clay Travis about UK football, especially the part about Andre’ Woodson, or the man with “an apostrophe after his name for no reason.”
Can you imagine how tough it was for Woodson to get down the rules for possessives in elementary school when he already had an apostrophe after his name? How many nights did he lie awake at night staring at the ceiling because his story about Andre’’s toys had come back riddled with red ink over the presumed excessive possessive? What about his fellow classmates? I guarantee you right now there are a ton of Andre’’s classmates who still have no idea when to use an apostrophe. For the record, my friend Tardio claims this apostrophe is there because Woodson “preemptively owns everything.”
I believe that was an attempt at the French accent aigu - except it should go OVER the “e” and not after.
My only question is, how do you deal with his name as possessive when writing about him? Do you use 2 apostrophes or just avoid it altogether and use his last name?