How to Use an Apostrophe Correctly

The apostrophe is a confusing punctuation mark for many people. It is very commonly misused, and some people even see it as merely a decoration in a sentence. Students as well as business writers should learn the proper use of an apostrophe. There are just a few simple steps to follow, which this article describes.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. The first step is to determine if you are dealing with any type of possession by a singular noun, but not a pronoun. For example, if a dog has a bone, we can say, "the dog's bone." The bone belongs to the dog. We could also say, "Larry's article." The article belongs to me. We also put an apostrophe in the phrase "each other's (possessions)," since "each” and "other" are singular. Automatic grammar checkers sometimes get this wrong.

2. We do not do this when dealing with pronouns such as his, hers, ours, theirs, yours, its, etc. We say, "The dog buried its bone." The bone still belongs to the dog, but we're referring to the dog as an "it" in this case. If we wrote "it's," it would mean "it is," which would make no sense. We could also say, "The dog buried his bone." In this case, we’re referring to the dog as a "he," but we certainly don't write "he's," which would mean "he is."

3. The next step is to determine if you are dealing with any type of contraction. For example, we use "don't" as a contraction for "do not." We use "won't as a contraction for "will not," even though it might make more sense to say, “willn’t.” We use "it's" as a contraction for "it is," as described above. Other contractions are "I'm," "they're," "she's," "he'll," etc. Although a bit uncommon, we can use "'Twas" to mean "it was," as begins the famous Christmas poem. In short, we use an apostrophe for contractions, which is a totally different use than using it for possession.

4. We do not use an apostrophe to make something plural. For example, we don't say, "I have many pets at home, including three dog's." That is just totally wrong. We make something plural by just adding "s" or "-es," or another suffix as needed.

5. The apostrophe can also be used at the very end of a word to mean possession if the word itself is already plural and ends with "s." This can be very confusing. For example, we can say, "Students are not allowed in the teachers' lounge." That means that the lounge belongs to multiple (plural) teachers. If we wrote "teacher's lounge," that would imply that only one teacher uses the lounge. That would be correct, however, in the sentence, "I placed an apple on the teacher's desk." It is the desk of just one teacher.

6. As another example, it is correct to refer to "the girls' locker room," but it is rarely written correctly like that. If we put the apostrophe before the "s," it would mean that only one girl uses that room, which would make sense if we said something like, "Madonna's dressing room." If we took out the apostrophe completely in the example, it wouldn't make sense because no possession would be implied, when we know that we need to imply it. The locker room belongs to the girls (plural).

7. Note that for names that end in "s," such as Jones, it is considered correct to use, "Jones'" or "Jones's" to express possession. Apostrophes are also sometimes used as part of numbers and abbreviations, such as DVD's or 1970's, but many people frown upon this use, and omit the apostrophe in these cases, which is preferable in modern writing.

8. Students and business writers should be certain to understand these rules. Missing and extraneous apostrophes are a huge pet peeve of teachers and sophisticated readers, so be extra careful with them, y'all!

[Kallicat]

on 1/17/2009 Wonderful information all writers should review.

[Barbs2bits]

on 1/17/2009 They are raining down like snowflakes these days! Good article.

[georgelarson]

on 1/17/2009 Thanks for the clarification of the apostrophe.