Don’t be so possessive
Although not the most difficult punctuation mark to get the hang of, the apostrophe is certainly one of the worst abused. There’s not much to it – or the rules that dictate how it’s used.
TL;DR
Two’s company
There are two types of apostrophes: possession and omission.
Someone’s favourite apostrophe
Possession implies ownership of something. So the possessive apostrophe is used to show that the subject of the sentence (a noun) owns the object of the sentence (another noun). For the most part, singular nouns and plural nouns that don’t end in ‘s’ will get an apostrophe ‘s’ (’s).
For example:
The jersey that belongs to Nicole is pink.
Becomes
Nicole’s jersey is pink.
Nicole (a proper noun) is the subject of the sentence. She owns a pink jersey, the object of the sentence. Instead of saying “The jersey that belongs to Nicole is pink,” we can use an apostrophe and an ‘s’ to show that this is the case.
When you first read this sentence, you’ll think ‘Ah, teachers have identified the curriculum’. But then you’ll realise there’s additional information and the beginning of the sentence mislead you.
If you’re working with a plural noun that ends with an ‘s’, you’ll just add an apostrophe.
For example, if I have two dogs and their leads are on the door:
The dogs’ leads are hanging on the back of the door.
Sometimes you’ll come across singular nouns that end with an ‘s’. These are somewhat more tricky, as the way you treat them is entirely up to preference. Some will prefer to end with a simple apostrophe, while others will prefer to add and apostrophe and an additional ‘s’.
For example:
Mr Jones’ new car.
OR
Mr Jones’s new car.
It’s mine
An apostrophe of omission is used where we omit something, or leave it out. What happens here is that we place an apostrophe in lieu of additional letters. This creates a contraction. There are some common contractions:
| ’s | is | she’s (she is) |
| n’t | not | don’t (do not) |
| ’m | am | I’m (I am) |
| ’ll | will | you’ll (you will) |
| ’re | are | we’re (we are) |
As you can see, one or more letters is left out in each case to create a shorter word. This happens for a number of reasons, but mainly because English speakers are lazy. It’s much easier to say “I don’t have a pink jersey,” than, “I do not have a pink jersey.” It also sounds more friendly – although that’s just because we’re not used to hearing the word “no” in any of its forms.
It’s a date
When referring to the shorthand form of dates, like the ’90s or the ’80s, apostrophe placement is key. Many people place the apostrophe between the number and the ‘s’ no matter what. However, the regular rules of the apostrophe apply here, so:
- Where you’re leaving something out (e.g. the ‘19’ from 1980 or 1990), put an apostrophe in its place
- Where you’re showing that something belonged to a time (e.g. ‘The 80’s beloved glam rock bands’), place the apostrophe between the number and the ‘s’
TL;DR
- If you’re combining two longer words and leaving some letters out, it’s an omission and the apostrophe will take the place of the missing letters (e.g. can not = can’t)
- If you’re trying to show that the noun of the sentence owns something, it’s possession and you place an apostrophe ‘s’ at the end of the word (e.g. Nicole’s bag)
- If you’re dealing with a plural noun ending in ‘s’, just use the apostrophe
- The rules fly out the window if it’s a singular noun ending in ‘s’
