You can tell what kind of a person someone is based on what annoys them. Me? I get annoyed when people choose the wrong word, mis-punctuate a sentence or put an apostrophe in the wrong place. I also get irritated when a person is described as a "former alumni" or, as I just saw recently, a "former letter winner."
OK, first of all, how can one person be an alumni? Alumni is plural. A person is either an alumnus or an alumna, depending on if they're a man or a woman. I wouldn't even give a person with multiple personalities the distinction of being more than one person. But this is an error that I can forgive (though not very graciously) since the word is Latin, and rules for Latin don't necessarily match rules for English.
But how can someone be a former alumnus? Or a former letter winner? The only way that's possible is if your diploma or letter was revoked. You're either an alumnus (you graduated from that school) or you're not. There's no middle ground. You're either a letter winner (the coach usually determines this) or you're not. I've not heard of anyone who's gotten a letter from their high school or college that says, "We're sorry. You know that piece of paper that says you graduated? Well, it's wrong. We need it back. And you'll have to re-complete that level of education."
You can be a former student or a previous student at a school. You can be a former athlete or a previous athlete at a school. But I do not think you can be a former graduate.
It's one of those things that drives me crazy. If people would stop and think about it, perhaps this particular phrase would fall out of use. I'd be happy about that.
Another common mistake I see is the use of the wrong its/it's. There's an easy way to make sure you're using the right version of the word. If, when you reread the sentence (assuming you reread the sentence before you send a release to a newspaper), you can replace the word with "it is" and the sentence still makes sense, it needs the apostrophe. If you replace the word with "it is" and the sentence doesn't make sense, don't use the apostrophe.
For example, in the sentence "it's a good day for the team to debut its new uniforms," when you replace the first it's with it is, the sentence still makes sense. "It is a good day for the team to debut its new uniforms." So the apostrophe is needed. When you replace the second its with it is, the sentence doesn't make sense. "It's a good day for the team to debut it is new uniforms." I don't think so - no apostrophe is needed there.
This concludes your grammar rant for today. Tune in next time when the grammar nerd discusses using an apostrophe to make a word plural. Spoiler alert: You don't!
