The apostrophe-- '-- is frequently misused, misplaced, or forgotten when people write. The following pages will review the correct uses of the apostrophe.
A. Possession.
Use an apostrophe s to indicate a possessive noun.
A possessive relationship occurs when one person, place, or thing can be said to belong to another. The following examples all demonstrate possession:
The woman's husband returned home.
The man's country is Canada.
The dog's collar is white.
The student's brilliant idea made him famous.
Indicate possession with an apostrophe s.
If the word already ends in an s, then you may either add an apostrophe and another s, OR put the apostrophe after the s.
The grass's colour is green OR the grass' colour is green.
If a word ends in an s because it is plural (there is more than one of an item), then add the apostrophe AFTER the s.
In the sentence,
The dogs' collars were white,
The s apostrophe indicates both that there are several dogs, and that the collars belong to the dogs.
Do NOT add an apostrophe merely because a word is plural.
He receives good marks on his tests,
AND NOT,
He receives good mark's on his test's.
B. Possessive pronouns. Pronouns are words which take the place of nouns, such as I, you, he, she, it, and they. Possessive pronouns (my, your, his, her, its, their) do NOT use apostrophes.
This is his shirt,
AND NOT,
This is hi's shirt.
You would probably never make the mistake which appears above, but many people confuse its (belonging to it) and it's (the contraction for it is). Whenever you write it's or its, ask yourself whether you mean it is or belonging to it. Be sure you are not confusing these two similar words.
C. Contractions. Why does it's have an apostrophe when it stand for it is? It's is a contraction, a word which combines two words and leaves out some of the letters from one of these words. In a contraction, the apostrophe takes the place of the missing letters. For example,
cannot = can't
do not = don't
would not = wouldn't
Be sure to put the apostrophe in the correct place when you write a contraction.
D. Apostrophes with plurals. Using an apostrophe s with a plural word is almost always an error. A few exceptions do exist.
Plurals of numbers written in numerical form:
This story takes place in the 1880's.
Plurals of letters:
You write your letter l's so that they look like t's.
The plurals of words ONLY when they refer to the word, rather than the word's meaning:
Your essay uses the word "calliope" too many times. The number of calliope's on the page becomes confusing.
E. Exercise. The following sentences contain many words which feature missing apostrophes, a missing apostrophe s, or a misplaced apostrophe. Rewrite each, correcting these errors.
1. The womens clothing stores owners names arent found in Londons phone book.
2. The two student's played the companies new videogame for hour's. When Chizus character chopped off Alex characters head for the fourth time, Alex decided to quit.
3. Its time for the dogs walk, but the dogs owner can’t find its collar.
4. Faith friend did'nt go to see the London Knight's play in the cities arena.
5. She thought the motorcycles headlight's coming around the corner we're Pages.
6. After the strange incidents had ended, both of the mens washrooms on the schools main floor were filled with ping-pong balls and catchers mitts.
NOTE: For sentence # 7, assume that Fern has only one brother, but the brother has many friends.
7. Ferns brothers friends coach is marrying our neighbours daughter. The idea of getting married in the park was the brides mother.
8. I wouldnt seriously consider giving his brothers phone number to that persons secretary. I do'nt believe that company's employee's can be trusted.
9. Curtis comment on Alainas Twitter posting led to even more discussion of the presenters errors at the Oscars.
