Apostrophes and Dates
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
No.
Really, no, for all the usual reasons.
Apostrophes denote dropped letters or possessive, so you don’t need one before that s in constructions like “the music of the 1940s.” You could argue about “1940s’ music” (look closely at the position of that apostrophe), but I will maintain that “1940s” should be treated as an adjective and keep my eye on you for the rest of the semester.
Dropped letters, remember, so this is okay: “These conditions endured through the 1870s and ’80s.” We’ve dropped the numbers showing the century. (more…)
