My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

But who really care’s?
The  problem  is  that,  in  the  course  of  the  last  few  decades,  lots  of  people  have
become confused about this and – rather than, as they fear, looking ignorant by
leaving  the  apostrophes  out  –  they  have  started  putting  apostrophes  in  where
they have no business to be. This is often called the greengrocer’s apostrophe .
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MOT’S HERE! FREE BANANA’S! FAIR DEAL’S! NO DOG’S!
†45
Bit’s and Bob’s (sign outside a South London shop)
Free Margarita’s before 7 p.m . (sign outside a pub)
If  the  shop  owners  are  called  Bit  and  Bob,  then  all  is  forgiven.  But  free
Margarita’s what? You could write Free Margarita’s lover before 7 p.m.,  if  you
wanted him to get out of jail in time to go to the cinema. However, assuming that
there is no shop owner called Bit and that Margarita is an alcoholic drink, there
is no need for a possessive apostrophe in either of these examples .
Similarly MPs , GIs , QCs and the 1970s don’t need apostrophes, unless they are
followed by a possessive or attribute. An (individual) MP’s expenses , (all) GIs’
uniform requirements. A 1970s’ trend would belong to the whole decade; 1970’s
music is specifically music from the year 1970.
An article in the Telegraph Magazine was titled ‘Wordsworths in Love’.
Every pedant in the country started composing a ‘Disgusted of Tunbridge
Wells’ letter. But happily the article turned out to be about the amours of
both William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy.
Conclusion: Using an apostrophe in a plural which is not a possessive form is to
be frowned on. No if’s or but’s.
To avoid confusion, it is permissible – but not necessarily necessary – to include
an apostrophe in:
do’s and don’ts (simply because do’s looks clearer than dos )
the three R’s
No more unnecessary 999’s, please

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There are two s’s in that word
dotting one’s i’s
Remember your p’s and q’s
But  in  all  of  these  cases,  it  is  a  matter  of  personal  taste,  and  the  apostrophe  is
included only for ease of reading .