An apostrophe is not only a punctuation mark but also a part of a word to demonstrate:
a. possession
b. contraction or omission
c. formation of certain plurals of lowercase letters
Apostrophe Rules for Possessive Forms
To determine if you need to make a possessive, reconstruct the phrase and turn it into a “of the…” phrase.
Examples:
| the people’s voice = the voice of the people |
| the pants’ seam = the seam of the pants |
It is unnecessary to use an apostrophe if the noun after “of” is a building, an object, or a piece of furniture.
Examples:
| bed of the hospital = hospital bed |
| lobby of the office = office lobby |
Rules on adding an apostrophe to form possessives:
a. add ‘s to words in singular form even if they end in -s.
Examples:
| the renter’s rights |
| Travis’s luggage (Travis’ luggage is also acceptable.) |
For plural proper nouns that are possessives, use only an apostrophe after the ‘s’. ”
Example:
| The Jeffersons’ garden is always well-kept. (The Jeffersons are a family of four.) |
b. add ‘s to nouns in plural forms that do not end in -s:
Example:
| the men’s football league |
| the grandchildren’s inheritance |
c. add only ‘ to the end of nouns in plural forms that end in -s:
Example:
| the communities’ rules |
| six colleagues’ proposals |
d. add ‘s to the end of compound words:
Example:
| my great-grandfather’s legacy |
| her sister-in-law’s property |
e. add ‘s to the final noun to show joint ownership of an object:
Examples:
| Marta and Jose’s mortgage |
| Alejandro and Ana’s trip |
Showing Omission of Letters
The omission of one or more letters (or numbers) in a word is called a contraction. An apostrophe is used in order to create this omission. Contractions are common in speaking and in informal writing.
To create a contraction, you must place the apostrophe in the position of the omitted letters.
Examples:
| we + have = we’ve (you removed ‘ha’ and replaced it with ‘) |
| should + have = should’ve (you removed ‘ha’ and replaced it with ‘) |
| was + not = wasn’t (you removed ‘o’ and replaced it with ‘) |
| ’80 = 1980 (you removed ’19’ and replaced it with ‘) |
Forming Plurals of Lowercase Letters
Use an apostrophe and an –s to form the plural of all lowercase letters to make it appear typographically correct.
“five rs” vs. “five r’s“
Example:
| How many p’s are there in Philadelphia? |
Apostrophes are not necessary in forming the plural of capitalized numbers and symbols. Capital letters do not usually require an apostrophe in the plural. To avoid confusion in some cases, use an apostrophe before the –s of the plural capitalized letter.
Examples:
| He’s got mostly A’s in his report card. |
Without the apostrophe the plural form of the capitalized letter would form a different word.
| many #s = many octothorpes His social media feed is full of #s. |
| the 1980s = the years in the decade from 1980 to 1989 The conservatism movement flourished in the 1980s. The ’80s was a time of conservative ideology |
Apostrophe should not be used for personal pronouns, the relative pronoun who, or for noun plurals.
Possessive pronouns, as the word suggests, already indicates possession therefore the use of apostrophe would make it redundant.
Examples of possessive pronouns are; his, her, its, my, yours, ours.
Indefinite pronouns, on the other hand, can be made possessive. Examples of indefinite pronouns are; one, anyone, other, no one, and anybody.
Examples:
| Incorrect | Correct |
| his’ ideas | his ideas |
| one’s ideas | |
| anybody’s ideas |
| Incorrect | Correct |
| Who’s car is in the driveway? | Whose car is in the driveway? |
| The team completed it’s project. | The team completed its project. |
Remember: Its and it’s are different. It’s is the contracted form of “it is” and ‘its’ is a possessive pronoun which means “belonging to it”.”
| It’s flowing freely. = It is flowing freely. |
Bear in mind that just as you do not use an apostrophe for the possessive his or hers, the same applies to the possessive pronoun its.
Examples:
| Incorrect | Correct |
| a colleague of yours’ | a colleague of yours |
| They stayed for five hours’ just to see him perform. | They stayed for five hours just to see him perform. |
Proofreading for Apostrophes
Once you have finished writing your paper, it is recommended to proofread for apostrophes. Here are some useful strategies:
If you decide to leave out apostrophes, go through every word that ends in -s or -es to check if they need an apostrophe.
If you notice you used too many apostrophes, check each one of them to see if their usage is justified according to any rule for using apostrophes.