Apostrophe Use: Avoid Apostrophe Catastrophe

What is an Apostrophe?

The apostrophe (‘) is a tiny punctuation that plays a big role in language and writing. Adding an apostrophe in the wrong place can alter or lose the meaning of a word or sentence. “My mom’s style” isn’t the same with “my mom styles” and she asked you to buy tomatoes, not “tomatoe’s”. Here’s a simple guide to avoid any apostrophe catastrophe. 

How to Use Apostrophes:

The apostrophe does mainly three things: it shows ownership or relationship; fills in the missing letters in a contraction; and forms the plural forms of numbers, symbols, and letters.  

1) Use an apostrophe to denote a word’s ownership of or relationship with another word in the sentence.

• He saw Lito’s car.
• A millionaire’s mansion was featured on TV.
• Have you read John Green’s new book? 
• Did you see his face?
• I bought a bag yesterday because I love its color!

NOTE: Pronouns in the possessive case like his and its in last two examples above do not require an apostrophe. The other possessive pronouns are hers, ours, yours, whose, and theirs. Again, these do not require an apostrophe. 

A.) Form the possessive case of a singular noun by adding an apostrophe and s (‘s) in the end. 

• She opened Allan’s gift.
• I like the teacher’s accent.
• He lost a month’s allowance.

NOTE: To form the possessive case of singular proper names ending in s, z, x, ch, sh, you have the option to add ‘s or only an apostrophe. 

• Rachel loves Ross’s hair. [pronounced as Ross-es]
• I like Josh’s pants. 
• He opened Mr. and Mrs. Santos’ salon [Do not add an s to the proper name that ends with s (Santos) when it’s followed by a word that starts with s (salon). Miss Pats’ shoulder, Maris’ school, Mauris’ shirt]
• She’s Ms. Rodriguez’s favorite child. [You can also write Ms. Rodriguez’ favorite.]
• Mary Burch’s hat is missing. 

Related Reading: Hyphens – Joining Words Together

B.) Form the possessive case of a plural noun ending in s by adding only an apostrophe.

• We received her friends’ photos. 
• She was the books’ author. 

To form the possessive case of plural nouns that do not end in s, add an apostrophe and s (‘s). 

• We saw the women’s jewelries.
• He knew his people’s needs.

NOTE: Do not form the plural of a noun by adding an apostrophe and s (‘s). 

Wrong She wiped the table’s clean. [No apostrophe is needed to form the plural form of table.]
Correct She wiped the tables clean.
Correct She changed the table’s position.

2) Use an apostrophe in place of the absent letters in a contraction.

A contraction is a shortened word or phrase from a combination of trimmed words. 

• I don’t sing. [do not]
• He’s not here. [he is]
• We mustn’t forget. [must not]
• I would’ve won. [would have] 
• We’ll be okay. [we will]
• You shan’t cry. [shall not]

NOTE: Don’t contract not to n’t. Not cannot be contracted unless joined by verbs such as in don’t, doesn’t, and shouldn’t. Also, never use could of or would of in place of the correct contractions, could’ve (could have) and would’ve (would have). 

3) Use an apostrophe and s (‘s) to form the plural forms of numbers, signs, symbols, and letters or words referred to as terms. 

• There was a lot of 5’s in his report card.
• She talked about the ABC’s of success.
• He used three #’s in her password. 
• They deleted all the R’s and L’s. 
• She changed several she’s into he’s.  

Exercise: Supply the missing apostrophe (‘) or apostrophe and s (‘s) in each sentence.

1. Her daughter dresses look expensive.
2. He was told about the shops closure.
3. She misspelled your name and added three H in the middle.
4. He was wrong about the men intention.
5. They want to steal Mich car.

Answers:

1. Her daughter’s dresses look expensive.
2. He was told about the shop’s closure.
3. She misspelled your name and added three H’s in the middle.
4. He was wrong about the men’s intention.
5. They want to steal Mich’s car.

Thank you for reading. We hope it’s effective! Always feel free to revisit this page if you ever have any questions about proper apostrophe use.

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