Bubba po

The Apostrophe
Brought to you by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The apostrophe has three uses:

1) to form possessives of nouns
2) to show the omission of letters
3) to indicate certain plurals of lowercase letters.

Apostrophes are NOT used for possessive pronouns or for noun plurals, including acronyms.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Forming possessives of nouns
To see if you need to make a possessive, turn the phrase around and make it an "of the..." phrase. For example:

the boy's hat = the hat of the boy
three days' journey = journey of three days

If the noun after "of" is a building, an object, or a piece of furniture, then no apostrophe is needed!

room of the hotel = hotel room

door of the car = car door

leg of the table = table leg

Once you've determined whether you need to make a possessive, follow these rules to create one.

• add 's to the singular form of the word (even if it ends in -s):
the owner's car
James's hat

• add 's to the plural forms that do not end in -s:

the children's game
the geese's honking

• add ' to the end of plural nouns that end in -s:

houses' roofs
three friends' letters

• add 's to the end of compound words:

my brother-in-law's money
• add 's to the last noun to show joint possession of an object:

Todd and Anne's apartment

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Showing omission of letters
Apostrophes are used in contractions. A contraction is a word (or set of numbers) in which one or more letters (or numbers) have been omitted. The apostrophe shows this omission. Contractions are common in speaking and in informal writing. To use an apostrophe to create a contraction, place an apostrophe where the omitted letter(s) would go. Here are some examples:

don't = do not

I'm = I am

he'll = he will

who's = who is

shouldn't = should not

didn't = did not

could've= could have (NOT "could of"!)

'60 = 1960


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Forming plurals of lowercase letters
Apostrophes are used to form plurals of letters that appear in lowercase; here the rule appears to be more typographical than grammatical, e.g. "three ps" versus "three p's." To form the plural of a lowercase letter, place 's after the letter. There is no need for apostrophes indicating a plural on capitalized letters, numbers, and symbols (though keep in mind that some editors, teachers, and professors still prefer them). Here are some examples:

p's and q's = a phrase indicating politeness, possibly from "mind your pleases and thankyous"?

Nita's mother constantly stressed minding one's p's and q's.

three Macintosh G4s = three of the Macintosh model G4

There are two G4s currently used in the writing classrom.

many &s = many ampersands

That printed page has too many &s on it.

the 1960s = the years in decade from 1960 to 1969

The 1960s were a time of great social unrest.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't use apostrophes for possessive pronouns or for noun plurals.
Apostrophes should not be used with possessive pronouns because possessive pronouns already show possession -- they don't need an apostrophe. His, her, its, my, yours, ours are all possessive pronouns. Here are some examples:



wrong: his' book

correct: his book



wrong: The group made it's decision.

correct: The group made its decision.

(Note: Its and it's are not the same thing. It's is a contraction for "it is" and its is a possesive pronoun meaning "belonging to it." It's raining out= it is raining out. A simple way to remember this rule is the fact that you don't use an apostrophe for the possesives his or hers, so don't do it with its!)



wrong: a friend of yours'

correct: a friend of yours



wrong: She waited for three hours' to get her ticket.

correct: She waited for three hours to get her ticket.

HTH.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

paulwrxboro

AGREED VERY BORING

Bubba po

Ah, it's too difficult, is it?

Chris L

Now find one on the use of semi colons

I appreciated it anyway Bubba

Bubba po

In the old days, Diablo would have deleted it and called me a ****.

paulwrxboro

why do you feel the need to pull people on this and things like spelling is it because its the only thing or one of the few things your good at ?

btw i know im crap at the above

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Permit me to fill the void:

Bubba, you're a ****!

Hope it was good for you!

NS04

Brendan Hughes

I think he still has 50% of that power.

But I also appreciated it. I've always avoided using them for TLA plurals, though colleagues insist. Looks like I was right! <smug grin>

Bubba po

Because it annoys me. Like people driving with their front fogs on. And because reading English without punctuation is like listening to really **** music played by eejits in welding gloves

Bubba po

How I've missed the Diablotribe.

(That's going in my list of invented words )

iamevilhomer

Clarebabes

I agree.

Fuzz

Boring it may be!

It would be nice to occasionally read a post on SN I can actually understand without having to read it twice and pause to think, "what the hell is that bloke on about".

Andy

Bubba po

With what do you agree?

Bubba po

Don't do yourself down! I'm sure your mum loves you.

Lee247

Is there no one in muppets to wind up, Bubba

Clarebabes

Not the "you're a ****" bit. Your bit

Fuzz

Did Bubba write that ???

Clarebabes

Nah, I did. He has never wound me up that much

paulwrxboro

well everybody else manages....without moaning

what im saying is not everyone can write like you... i know i couldnt

look at it this way it you had your car on a track and somebody was much faster than you and they pull you over at the end and said your a **** keep off the track your not as good as me

Bubba po

Question mark, Les.

Bubba po

I'd not expect anyone to be so rude! What would be nice is if someone came over and said "I noticed you were struggling a bit out there, would you mind if I offered you a few tips?" As I have done.

Lee247

sorry, favourite son

little-ginge

.

paulwrxboro

my point is i and many others on that track would think what a ***** .... not everyone is the same standard

Clarebabes

Yes, I see where you're coming from, but they don't teach "driving at track days" in the National Curriculum yet, so we don't expect people to reach some sort of acceptable level by the time they're 16. English, including reading and writing is a subject in which we hope our schools can teach our offspring enough to be able to construct a simple sentence correctly. (That does make sense, doesn't it?)

However, I'm sure they don't teach English in schools these days to that acceptable standard judging by some of the young people I deal with on a daily basis! So, I am more tolerant than certain people, but my daughter will be getting home tuition....

brihoppy

No full stop...???

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Ah, it's nice to know I'm not the only one who thinks that

We spotted an excellent misuse of the apostrophe on a food label the other day which has been confirmed by your post so I thank you for that. I shall of course be writing a letter to the manufacturer point it out

Sal (pedant).

carl

For many years I passed a sign on the A120 at Marks Tey which directed people to ANTIQUE,S

As far as I know it's still there.