Edwin from The Netherlands:
Thanks for your questions! Right, let’s start by reminding you of one of the main uses of apostrophes, which is to show that some letters in a word have been taken out. So instead of saying we are, we say we’re (that’s w-e-apostrophe-r-e) - the apostrophe represents the missing a. For don’t, the apostrophe of course replaces the missing o in not – do not, don’t, (that’s d-o-n-apostrophe-t), and so on.
So, Edwin, what missing letters does the apostrophe stand for in two o'clock, (which is two-o-apostrophe-clock)? What’s the apostrophe? Well, the long form of this expression is two of the clock and the apostrophe stands for the missing letters in of the, so two of the clock becomes two o’clock (o-apostrophe-clock). But two of the clock is a very old expression and it isn't heard in modern English these days – we just say it's two o'clock.
Now let's go on to Ourlis's question. Apostrophe-cause means because, that’s be replaced by an apostrophe – cause. And tryin' (that’s t-r-y-i-n-apostrophe) means trying– the apostrophe replaces the g. Now you see words like apostrophe-cause and tryin’ with an apostrophe, mostly they appear in songs because they’re not really considered to be correct English, even though the missing letters represent the pronunciation of the words as they’re actually said or sung.
Now, there are lots of words which are written like this in song lyrics, or sometimes in quotations of what people have actually said when it's important that their pronunciation is reproduced as accurately as possible. For example, you’ve got goin’ which means going, singin’ means singing, dreamin’ - dreaming, and there’s a few more of them that you can see by looking on our website:
goin' going
singin' singing
dreamin' dreaming
jus' just
'em them
'im him
'bout about
OK, well I hope I’ve answered your questions Edwin and Ourlis and I hope to see you another time on Ask about English.
