Apostrophe abuse and misplacement
The HiFi and computer retailers are perhaps the worst offenders when it comes to apostrophe abuse. This sort of abuse is rife throughout the industry, and can be seen in mail-out brochures, in-store advertising, right through to TV ads.
Correct:
1990s
'90s
In this case, the apostrophe is used to replace an omitted part of the millenium. This is one form of contraction, similar to how the word cannot can be spelt can't.
Incorrect:
1990's
90's
Peope who have seen the contraction for the millenium have made an incorrect attempt to apply it here. The apostrophe is misplaced; in almost all cases, their intention is to identify a decade. But when the apostrophe is placed between the decade and the 's', it implies the decade has ownership of something.
Correct:
CDs & DVDs
Incorrect:
CD's & DVD's
In this case, the apostrophe is extraneous. Shops selling more than one CD and DVD would use the plural form by adding an 's' to the end. However, what they don't realise is by including the apostrophe before the 's', they are implying the CD or DVD has ownership of something, Which makes absolutely no sense at all (unless they are using it to describe how a CD or DVD includes additional material or mechandise, or its content).
Correct:
Plasmas & LCDs
Incorrect:
Plasma's & LCD's
Same as the case above. Note that Plasma's is a much worse case. For some bizzare reason, people think that acronymns are OK be used with an apostrophe when they attempt to use plural form, but most would not normally put an apostrophe before the "s" when turning a noun into a plural form. So it is equally as silly as writing "Person's", "Computer's", etc.
Correct:
FAQs
Short for Frequently Asked Questions
Incorrect:
FAQ's
You wouldn't write Frequently Asked Question's. So why would you write FAQ's? Far too many company websites have this error.