Ace The Apostrophe

Self-Publishing Fundamentals: Stress-Free Grammar Guide

Ebony McKenna

“We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary.”

James Nicoll on the English language, 1990.

Contents

Introduction

1. Apostrophe Rule One

2. Apostrophe Rule Two

3. The Apostrophe Hierarchy

4. Apostrohpe Rule Three

5. Trouble-shooting

6. Answers

7. Recap

Introduction

What is an apostrophe and how do I use it?

Knowing when and how to use an apostrophe can be confusing, but it’s nothing to be scared of when you know the rules.

The good great news is, there are only three apostrophe rules. Once you know them, you’ll gain confidence with your writing to go forth and apostrophise …

What are the first rules?

- Apostrophe Rule one: The apostrophe is used to indicate missing letters. Place the apostrophe where the missing letters would be.

- Apostrophe Rule two: Use an apostrophe to show ownership, belonging or even blame. This is achieved by placing the apostrophe after the noun (a name) and adding an ‘s’.

That’s it. They are the two main rules! (And I will explain more in a moment.) Actually, the rules do have some subsections, but they feed back to the main rules anyway, so it’s not going to burn your brain.

- Rule three: Missing letters come first in the hierarchy, and then ownership (we’ll cover this later in more detail, so it makes sense.)

- Rule four: Apostrophes are NOT used to show plurals or groups. BUT if something belongs to a group, an apostrophe is added AFTER the s.

I snuck another rule in there, but only to say when NOT to use an apostrophe.

Technically, I could include 27 other rules of where else not to use an apostrophe, but rule four is the main one.

Sometimes there will be confusion. You will want to dot your ‘i’s and cross your ‘t’s, not your is and ts.

In such a case, if you need a letter or two to stand out, place single quotation marks (speech tags, dialogue tags) around the letter or word that needs to stand out.

The grammar app called Grammarly (incredibly helpful) suggests adding an apostrophe to prevent confusion, so they would recommend we dot your i’s and cross your t’s.

I’m not a fan of this ad-hoc approach to grammar, but that’s just me. Whatever you choose in these rare situations, be consistent and it will look deliberate, rather than desperate.

OK. Let’s try this out for real now, and see how the apostrophe works.

Chapter 1

Apostrophe Rule One

The apostrophe is used to indicate missing letters in a word or missing numbers in a date.

In spoken English usage, we often combine two words into one. It speeds things along. But that’s in everyday speech.

To show this shortening in written communication, we place the apostrophe where the missing letters would have been.

However, written language also relies on spaces between words, and we don’t put an apostrophe where the space between the words would have been.

Examples:

cannot or can not becomes can’t

they are becomes they’re

we are becomes we’re

we have becomes we’ve

should have becomes should’ve

would have becomes would’ve

Your Turn:

Have a go at filling in the missing words

1. She had becomes _______________

2. We have becomes _______________

3. _______________ becomes shouldn’t

4. _______________ becomes wouldn’t

5. Did not becomes _______________

6. Are not becomes _______________

Just for fun, I’ve found one word with three contractions:  fo'c's'le. It’s pronounced FOHK-sil and is a contraction of forecastle, which is the upper deck of a sailing ship, forward of the foremast. Three missing letters, three apostrohpes.

Want some more practise? Head on over to the Big Blue Grammar Book and try out their quiz.

https://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/apostrophes_1.asp

* * *

Why do we contract words?

The reason we contract words and put the apostrophe in, is to reflect spoken English in our writing. For example, it’s pretty common to say, ‘It’s one o’clock,’ but unless you were living in Regency Britain, you wouldn’t say, ‘It is one of the clock.’

Plus, we add apostrophes to differentiate between a contraction and another word that may have the same spelling. EG: Can’t and cant.

Can’t with the apostrophe means you cannot achieve or complete something, or get permission etc.

Cant without the apostrophe means pretense or hypocrisy or reciting words for the sake of it.

Something we generally don’t do in English is to put a contraction at the end of a sentence where the sound is ‘soft’.

“That’s just the kind of people we’re.”

However, when the contraction has a hard sound, it works. You’d think it wouldn’t!

Numbers:

This is where many apostrophes creep in when they aren’t required, or are left out when they should be used.

Use an apostrophe if numbers are missing:

When referring to decades, it’s common to leave the first two numbers out.

Example:

The 1920s becomes the ‘20s

The 1970s becomes the ‘70s

And so on.

However, there is not an apostrophe between the zero and the s – unless there’s some ownership or belonging going on.

Example

The fashion of the 1960s becomes 1960’s fashion or ‘60’s fashion. It gets an apostrophe either side, because it’s missing the 19 and the fashion style belongs to the decade, or is ‘of the decade’.

Attitudes from the 1950s becomes1950’s attitudes or ‘50’s attitudes.

We will get on to ownership in the next rule, ps.

Rule one recap:

Use an apostrophe to show missing letters or numbers.

Bonus pronunciation: Should have and ‘should’ve’ is often pronounced ‘should of’ which has led to many people writing in the comments section, “He should of won that race!” The correct sentence is, “He should have won that race!” We need to maintain our standards, otherwise the savages will win.

Chapter 2

Apostrophe Rule Two

Use an apostrophe to show ownership, belonging or even blame.

This is achieved by placing the apostrophe adter the last letter of the word and then adding an ‘s’.

Examples:

This is Ebony’s fault (because I own the blame). The fault belongs to Ebony

Kiran’s car is parked over there. (The car belongs to Kiran)

Anna’s hair is looking fabulous today. (The hair belongs to Anna)

This is Irving’s work (It could either be the work of Irving, or where Irving works)

Your Turn:

Re-write these sentences to show where the apostrophe would go.

example: The umbrella belonging to Dave becomes_Dave’s umbrella_

1. The car owned by Vish becomes _______________

2. The room used by Ann becomes ______________

3. The famous recipe from Carol becomes _________________

Turning things around, re-write these sentences.

1. The cat’s pyjamas _____________________

2. A dogs’ breakfast _________________________

3. A fool’s errand _________________________

Chapter 3

The Apostrophe Hierarchy

Missing letters and contractions come first. (Which is why it was rule 1) Missing letters take precedence over ownership.

It’s will always mean it is.

Its – without an apostrophe - indicates ownership, but we don’t give it the apostrophe because the missing letter usage comes first in the hierarchy – so we can tell the difference between it is and its.

“This is its last chance to get things right.”

If you’re not sure, say the word its as ‘it is’ and see if it still works in the sentence.

It’s cold outside – it is cold outside.

I can’t believe it’s Friday already – I cannot believe it is Friday already.

This is its mother. – This is it is mother. (Nope, doesn’t work, so no apostrophe needed for the its.)

The word ‘its’ without the apostrophe is known as a possessive pronoun.

None of the possessive pronouns in English use an apostrophe to show possession. How about that?

Yours

His

Hers

Its

Ours

Theirs

Whose

Source: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/apostrophe/

Chapter 4

Apostrohpe Rule Three

To show belonging to plurals, multiples, groups etc, put the apostrophe after the s at the end of the word.

This is where people get confused: A plural means more than one.

Example:

One orange, two oranges, a whole bag of oranges. English does not use an apostrophe to indicate more than one.

One elephant. Two elephants.

BUT

How do you show the apostrohpe if something belongs to a group?

Here’s how we do it.

This is the elephant’s home (one elephant, one home) – apostrophe before the s

This is the elephants’ home (many elephants, one home) – apostrophe after the s

These are the elephants’ homes (many elephants, many homes) – apostrophe after the s in elephants, but not after the ’s’ in ‘homes’, as that is a plural of the word ‘home’.

More examples:

One building’s roof caught fire. (Because the roof belonged to the one building)

The buildings’ roofs caught fire. (Many buildings had their roofs ablaze.)

Your Turn:

How many people are represented in the following sentences? I might try and trick you here:

1. The workers’ union ____________________________

2. The worker’s union ____________________________

3. The tourist’s bus _____________________________

4. The accountants’ feast ____________________________

Add some possessive apostrophes:

1. The hospital of the children becomes _______________________

2. Luggage belonging to pilots becomes _______________________

3. A store owned by Mary Jones becomes_______________________

4. The car belonging to Elias becomes_______________________

Chapter 5

Trouble-shooting

Homophones are words that sound the same but are written out differently. They can cause some confusion with apostrophes.

You’re – you are

Your – belongs to you (your hat, your shoes etc)

They’re – they are

Their – belongs to them (their house, their community etc)

There – direction (over there … here, there everywhere)

Acronyms

These are an easy way to slip up for sure.

One DVD, two DVD’s yeah? Or even DVD’S. Because DVDS looks weird.

(Mind you, DVDs are on their way out and Blu-Ray is even on the downhill slope and it’s all streaming and what even is 5G. OK, I’ll stop.)

The correct way to make a plural out of a regular acronym is to add a small letter s at the end

DVDs CDs 1970s

There is a merry debate about what happens when an acronym also uses full stops (also called periods in the USA)

For example - one M.D. two M.D.’s

The New York Times style guide (and other newspapers) have made their own in-house style guide about adding an apostrophe when an acronym uses capital letters and periods.

This is their style, and they apply it consistently - even if other news organisations do not.

I don’t even know if there’s a governing body for global grammar. I should do a web search.

(There is a governing body for new emojis, by the way, it’s called The Unicode Consortium and I’m currently helping some wondeful people get the ferret/weasel emoji accepted. But that’s antoher story.)

Here’s The New York Times’ justification for why they do what they do. Basically, it’s to reduce confusion.

https://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/faqs-on-style/

Written Numbers into Numerals:

If you’re writing a number, like nineteen and then write it into numerals, eg, 19, you don’t need an apostrophe.

For example: My son’s feet are so big, he’s wearing size nineteens.

Woud then become:

My son’s feet are so big, he’s wearing size 19s.

No apostrophe required for the 19, as it wasn’t needed when the number was written out.

(By the way, in that sentence, the feet belonged to the son, and he is became he’s, so we had the example of a posessive and a contraction.)

Chapter 6

Answers

Chapter 1

1. She had becomes ___she’d___

2. We have becomes __we’ve___

3. Should not _ becomes shouldn’t

4. Would not_ becomes wouldn’t

5. Did not becomes _didn’t__

6. Are not becomes _aren’t_

Aren’t you glad you know this now?

Chapter 2

1. The car owned by Vish becomes Vish’s car__

2. The room used by Ann becomes Ann’s room__

3. The famous recipe from Carol becomes _Carol’s famous recipe

Turning things around, re-write these sentences.

1. The cat’s pyjamas - The pyjamas of the cat

2. A dogs’ breakfast - the breakfast of the (many) dogs

3. A fool’s errand - The errand of the fool.

Chapter 4

1. The workers’ union _the union many workers belongs to.

2. The worker’s union. The union one worker belongs to.

3. The tourist’s bus - the one bus the tourist used.

4. The accountants’ feast _the feast of many accountants.

Add some possessive apostrophes:

1. The hospital of the children becomes _The children’s hospital (or The Children’s Hospital) _

2. Luggage belonging to pilots becomes _the pilots’ luggage_

3. A store owned by Mary Jones becomes_Mary Jones’ Store_

4. The car belonging to Elias becomes_Elias’ car.

It is so tempting to put an extra s after Jones’ and Elias’. How would that look?

Jones’s and Elias’s. It’s still OK, and you can do that. Just as long as you’re consitent throughout your writing/story/novel etc.

Chapter 7

Recap

So there you go.

One little apostrophe, three main rules.

1: Missing letters (and numbers) come first

2: Ownership/possession and belonging next.

3: When ownership/possession is plural, put the apostrophe after the S.

And remember: Don’t use an apostrophe for plural, unless it’s to indicate your plural/group own something or belong to something.

The entire aim of grammar is to reduce confusion - to have an order to our written language so that it is readily understood. This is an admirable aim.

When I’m writing, I want my readers to understand me, not scrunch their face up in confusion.

If all else fails, my motto is: ‘When in doubt, leave it out.’