# Mares are not horses **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 10, 2007, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mares-are-not-horses/429449 "2007-12-10T04:07:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mares-are-not-horses/429449/41 "2007-12-13T15:31:00Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Putting “apostrophe’s” in when not needed is grammar, not spelling, which is why it irritates so many people when they see it. [/QUOTE] Can you back this up with anything? Choosing how a word is represented when written seems like spelling to me. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2007, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mares-are-not-horses/429449/42 "2007-12-14T17:17:12Z")
[QUOTE=Pleonast] Can you back this up with anything? Choosing how a word is represented when written seems like spelling to me. [/QUOTE] It’s grammar in the sense that it encodes functional information: the distinction between “persons”, “person’s”, and "persons’ " is a grammatical one, the same way as writing “person” when you meant “persons” is a grammatical error rather than a spelling error. Writing “parson” when you meant “person” is a spelling error. (Any of the above, of course, might be a _typographical_ error.) ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2007, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mares-are-not-horses/429449/43 "2007-12-14T20:12:46Z")
Discussing grammar niceties in this manner reminds me of that lovely equine aphorism: _You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mares-are-not-horses/429449.md?page=2)