Are you better with apostrophes than a Yorkshire database? – quiz

This week there were reports that residents of North Yorkshire were irked that their road signs were having punctuation removed to make it easier for computer databases. We’ll just park for one moment how bad your computer database must be in 2024 if it cannot cope with apostrophes. But it did prompt a question: are you better with apostrophes than a North Yorkshire computer database? Find out with our fun but pedantically accurate quiz …

1. Which of these has the correct apostrophe?

   1. Kenneth William's did the voices for a cartoon named after Will-o-the-wisp

   2. Kenneth Williams did the voice's for a cartoon named after Will-o-the-wisp

   3. Kenneth Williams did the voices for a cartoon named after Will-o'-the-wisp

2. According to the Guardian style guide, how many sisters and how many friends are being referred to in this phrase: my sisters’ friend’s books.

   1. It refers to one sister and her friend

   2. It refers to one sister with lots of friends

   3. It refers to more than one sister, and their friend

   4. It refers to more than one sister, and their friends

3. If you were to walk from the tip of England to the tip of Scotland, traditionally your route would go from …

   1. Lands End to John o'Groats

   2. Land's End to John o'Groats

   3. Lands' End to John o'Groats

4. If some children own some bicycles that get involved in an accident, where does the apostrophe go?

   1. Boris shouted angrily as he crashed his big red bus into the children's bicycles

   2. Boris shouted angrily as he crashed his big red bus into the childrens' bicycles

   3. Boris shouted angrily as he crashed his big red bus into the childrens bicycle's

5. The Premier League football team who play at Molineux are often referred to as Wolves. But what is their full name?

   1. Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club

   2. Wolverhampton Wanderer's Football Club

   3. Wolverhampton Wanderers' Football Club

6. The Isles of Scilly are off the coast of Cornwall. One of these constituent islands has an errant apostrophe. Which one?

   1. St Mary's

   2. St Agne's

   3. St Martin's

   4. St Helen's

7. Which of these sentences has the correct apostrophe placement?

   1. Suella Braverman didn't even get one week's notice when she was sacked as home secretary

   2. Suella Braverman didn't even get one weeks notice when she was sacked as home secretary

8. Can you get this one right? Which of these means the dinners belonging to the geese?

   1. The geeses' dinners

   2. The geese's dinner's

   3. The geese's dinners

   4. The geeses' dinners'

9. As this whole stramash was set off by council signs, do you know what is the name on the signs of the main thoroughfare in Edinburgh?

   1. Princes Street

   2. Prince's Street

   3. Princes' Street

10. Only one of these is right …

    1. The very naughty miniature dachshund licked its paws

    2. The very naughty miniature dachshund licked it's paws

11. When you spell its without an apostrophe, why do you spell its without an apostrophe

    1. Because it is a contraction

    2. Because it is a plural

    3. Because it is a possessive pronoun

12. Where do you correctly put the punctuation in this sentence?

    1. My mortgage payment's went up spectacularly thanks to Liz Truss' 49 days in power

    2. My mortgage payments went up spectacularly thanks to Liz Truss's 49 day's in power

    3. My mortgage payments went up spectacularly thanks to Liz Truss's 49 days in power

13. How do you punctuate this Oxford college?

    1. All Souls College

    2. All Soul's College

    3. All Souls' College

14. This nautical term shows off with the most apostrophes in the English language, but which of these is correct?

    1. Fo'c's'le

    2. Fo'cs'l'e

    3. F'oc's'le

15. The very first ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) standard used by computers DID include the apostrophe. When was it first published?

    1. 1943

    2. 1953

    3. 1963

    4. 1973

Solutions

1:C - It has the correct apostrophe, although the cartoon he did the voices for was actually called Willo the Wisp, not Will-o'-the-wisp, 2:C - Bingo!, 3:B - Land's End does have an apostrophe in it, as does, of course, John o'Groats, 4:A - Because the plural doesn't end in s, you add a 's on the end, 5:A - No apostrophe. And quite a few years since they won a trophy as well. Just kidding, Wolves fans, we know you won League One in 2013–14 and the Championship in 2017–18, 6:B - There is no apostrophe in St Agnes, 7:A - You do use an apostrophe where the time period (one week) modifies a noun (notice), 8:C - Those dinners do belong to the geese, 9:A - There is no apostrophe, and there hasn't been since about the 1830s, although there was a campaign in 2013 to try to get it put back. The street was named after King George IV when he was but a prince, 10:A - The dog does indeed possess its own paws, 11:C - It's the very definition of a possessive pronoun. See what we did there?, 12:C - Thanks Liz, 13:A - No punctuation at all, 14:A - It is short for forecastle, which is a term for the forward part of a ship, 15:C - For over 60 years computers have recognised the apostrophe, so there isn't really any excuse not to put them on signs in the right place, is there? The council cited BS7666, but according to the lovely nerd website The Register, the only thing BS7666 says on the matter is: "Abbreviations and punctuation should not be used, unless they appear in the designated name, eg 'Dr Newton's Way'"

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun!