We live in a dangerous world. It's possible for even small children to get online and come into contact with truly corrupting and dangerous influences. The worst of these is unquestionably that arch-nemesis of english teachers everywhere: POOR GRAMMAR. Today, I'll teach you to protect yourself from POOR GRAMMAR with a few simple rules. Remember, internet safety starts with YOU!

One of the most common grammar errors is failure to recognize the difference between a plural noun and a possessive. We call this a "gateway error." You start out talking about "all the baseball's," and don't think that's a problem. But within months you'll be trolling Youtube, writing in all caps all the time, and misspelling any word with more than two syllables. Don't let your loved ones experience that heartbreak.

So what's the difference between a plural and a possesssive? Good question! A plural is a noun which specifies that there is more than one of a thing. Most nouns in English become plural when you add an "s" or "es" to the end: baseballs, velociraptors, paradoxes. Nouns that end in "y" often take "ies" to become plural: democracies, realities. Some other nouns don't follow any pattern: people, geese, men, women. The last category is tough; you just need to learn them individually.

On the other hand we have possessives--nouns that indicate ownership. These are formed by adding an apostrophe and an "s" to the nouns that own other nouns: the sheep's wool, the boy's dog, the lady's hat. An exception is when the possessive noun already ends in "s;" then only an apostrophe is added, as in "together, all the families' resources helped build the town." Notice that when plurals are also possessives they often take only an apostrophe, because they already end in "s."

There are two things to which you should pay special attention: acronyms and the word "its." "Its" is the exception to the possessive rule; "its" is possessive, while "it's" means "it is." So "It's a beautiful day" means "It is a beautiful day" and "the TV has its own remote" means "there is a remote which belongs to the TV."

Which brings us to acronyms. Acronyms becom plural the same way almost everything else does: by adding "s." The plural of CD, for instance, is CDs; the plural of JPEG is JPEGs. Adding apostrophe "s" to acronyms makes them possessive: FEMA's massive failure, the USA's enormous deficit.

Now you know the difference between plurals and possessives. Remember, NO ONE can force you to use bad grammar if you don't want to. Not even the internet.