BuildTO
Active Member
I don't mind apostrophes in "70's" or "80's" if only because it's a nice way to differentiate between letters and numbers...I'll often add them when writing just so the zero cannot be interpreted as an 'oh'
As numbers are all the same height, vs. lower-case letters which are based in the bottom half of the line, there is already a visual distinction when writing decades. You may not mind the apostrophe here but it is incorrect.
Although not literally correct, I think common usage makes the possessive apostrophe work in some manner because it's the decade (and whatever happened during that time) belonging to the 70's.
"Common usage" does not "make it work". It's works because it is correct - as long as the mention of the decade is possessive.
Yeah, but sense is less important than effective communication. If a majority of people like and use 70's, they're not wrong and the language laws should change.
"Sense" in this context is the same thing as "effective communication".
You're trying to apply principles of spoken language to writing systems. These principles of language change apply to spoken language, but not to writing. Change in writing standards has to be agreed upon, and consensus is more difficult to reach because we are referring to formal writing rules.
Your preference for the possessive "70's" where it is not possessive is a result of frequent, mistaken usage. The rules governing the apostrophe in this case are actually logical, so there is no argument for changing the rules. Changing the (logical) rule here would make no difference to those who are unaware of the reasoning, but to those who are aware of the rule, it would cause confusion.
(I touch on the explanation for some of this reasoning in my 2nd post in this thread.)