Those of us who have English as a first language should certainly think ourselves lucky when it comes to plurals and grammar in general.
As this thread tends to show already, just keeping it lighter and being nicer rather than grammar perfect might help a whole lot more, and is a lot more noticeable, and actually useful, especially on a forum aiming to be inclusive (right?).
All efforts for improvement are welcome though. Quick search and a small, though probably far from gold reference perfect for some, apostrophes use tool here below - hopefully those feeling not worthy would read thoroughly, practise with their loved ones, and make quick amends. Please.
Just to be clear, I am not suggesting perfect English or even this pdf to be included in the forum’s’s rules and pinned on it’s wall (you see its me in total panic already!) as I cannot see much anyone left here after?
And ‘whether’ seems almost universally replaced by ‘if’ - which can be confusing.
One example that can cause confusion is ‘sheep’ - both a singular and plural noun.
The sheep’s lambs could refer to the lambs of one sheep, or the lambs of all them sheep there in that field. If the latter, should you write The sheeps’ lambs? I don’t think that is correct.
Now I would be incorrect then as I would refer to the lambs of all the sheep as the sheeps’ lambs.
It is tempting - but when you have a plural that does not end in s then you add 's to the end of the singular, e.g. children, people etc. - so it should be sheep’s. It is only when the plural ends in s that you add an apostrophe after that s. There are quite a few other, similar, examples; fish, cattle, sperm (sorry pardon), deer, aircraft etc. - though I am increasingly hearing people refer to aircrafts as the plural, which just gets confusing because I keep thinking The aircraft’s what?)
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Here we have an example of what I referred to above - variations in convention, in this case across the Atlantic. The guidance you have posted states emphatically that an apostrophe should be used when creating plurals of letters, numbers and symbols. This guidance is from Purdue University in the US.
Compare it with this from Oxford University Press, UK in their style guide.
‘Do not use the apostrophe when creating plurals. This includes names, abbreviations (with or without full points), numbers […]’
Examples include: QCs, the 1990s, B.Litt.s
So check your geographical location before deciding. Not very helpful on international social media!
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I can see it also becoming even more confusing if unsure who the parents are:)
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I tend to get more irritated by my own typos, spelling mistakes and other errors than the ones made by others. Then I remember my mindfulness training and remind myself to be kinder to myself.
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Beachcomber,
It becomes even more confusing when the sheep die – then they are mutton! Their big friends, the cows, become beef! I believe that English has William the Conqueror to thank for these examples.
This could go on and on and on and …
Brian D.
yes, indeed, Billy taught us how to speak proper.
I feel for her. I taught undergraduates and post graduates, some of whom were at best semi literate. Many of their sentences in essays lacked verbs, for example. They were shocked when I pulled them up on this. I found the most effective tactic was to ask them to read extracts of their work aloud, which invariably brought home to them the nature of the problem.
The cause of their shock was twofold: they had never been corrected at school; and I was teaching on a technical degree, so they believed literacy was irrelevant. I once made a joke to a school teacher about consuming a lot of red pens, to which she responded that she was not allowed to correct work spelling and grammar and the use of red ink was banned in her school!
It is difficult to get the apostrophe in the right place, as any fule kno.
When I was an undergrad at Liverpool Uni, studying Life Sciences (biology, basically), one of the students complained to one of the lecturers about having their grammar/spelling criticised and corrected - they said that they were doing a science degree, not languages. The lecturer said something to the effect that you can do the best, most wonderful science in the world, but if you cannot communicate your results clearly, precisely and unambiguously then you have wasted your time. I absolutely agree with him - language is a tool in science just as much as any other piece of equipment, and should be used appropriately.
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Indeed one doesn’t want to get hypo or hyper mixed up particularly in medicine 
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Reminds me of the French faux pas. Never wear a crevette.
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I have to agree with them. I wonder what percentage would ever write an essay in the course of their working life. Most of them wouldn’t remember what a verb was 6 months after leaving your classroom for the last time; it’s just not interesting enough. 
Oh come on, no one our age went to ‘uni’!
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Quite right, I made sure to understand the difference when my sister was diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic.
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