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[–] 15 points 11 months ago (1 child)

That's good to know. It just looked so weird. I knew what I wrote was also weird, but it felt less weird.

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  • [–] 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

    Basically apostrophes are never used to separate a word from a normal suffix in this kind of novel or unusual construction. Pretty much just use apostrophes for contractions and (most) possessives. Example: 90s, not 90's.

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    Edit: In English, for English words. Some languages, either those normally rendered in Latin script* or transliterated into it**, make use of apostrophes either to modify an adjacent phoneme or to indicate particular sounds or a glottal stop.

    * English-like letters and punctuation

    ** Like Japanese written as if it were English, for example "Ohayo gozaimasu" which is written in hiragana as おはようございま.

    Source: Amateur with the dangerous amount of a little knowledge

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    Edit2: Others point out (correctly) that referencing the 1990s as a decade would be properly written as '90s, which is still a use of an apostrophe for a contraction.

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  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    And, actually, I believe it’s ‘90s! So there is one, it’s right in front.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago* (2 children)

    So if you said you were a 90's child, wouldn't that be okay? (As you are a child of/possessed by the 90s) A nineties' child, if you will?

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    As bitjunkie said, if you were referring to 90s in the possessive, it would be 90s' since it's a plural noun already - much like parents' mortgages or stores' buildings.

    That said, I would probably look at the phrase "90s child" as either (1) a compound noun not needing anything to be possessive (like "ice cream"), or (2) with "90s" as an adjective modifying "child" (like "latchkey kid").

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