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from English Grammar Today. Apostrophe to show two words have been connected (contraction) We sometimes connect two words to make one shorter word. We use an apostrophe to show that we have left out one or more letters: Warning: We use ’s for has and is: She’s seen that movie already. (has) He’s my brother. (is) Warning:
The apostrophe (' or ’) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for three basic purposes: The marking of the omission of one or more letters, e.g. the contraction of "do not" to "don't"
- Apostrophe Use: Contractions and Omissions
- Apostrophes and Possessive Nouns
- Apostrophes and Possessive Pronouns
- Apostrophes and Joint Possession
- Apostrophes and Plurals
- Apostrophes with Surrounding Punctuation
- When to Check A Style Guide
A contraction is a shortened form of a word or group of words that omits certain letters or sounds. In a contraction, an apostrophe represents missing letters. The most common contractions are made up ofverbs,auxiliaries, ormodalsattached to other words: “He would” = “He’d.” “I have” = “I’ve.” “They are” = “They’re.” “You cannot” = “You can’t.” Som...
The rules about formingpossessive nounsprobably cause the most apostrophe confusion. They vary a bit, depending on what type of noun you are making into a possessive. Here are the rules of thumb: For most singular nouns, add -’s: For most plural nouns, add only an apostrophe: For plural nouns that do not end in s, add -’s: Style guidesvary in their...
Personal pronouns, unlike regular nouns, do notuse apostrophes to form possessives. Most writers don’t have trouble with thepossessive pronouns my,mine,his,her, and our. It’s your,yours,hers,its,ours,their, and theirsthat tend to cause the confusion. The relative possessive pronoun whoseis also frequently the victim of apostrophe abuse. Note that n...
What do you do with the apostrophe when you’re talking about things that belong to more than one person? When one thing belongs to two or more people jointly, make only the final name possessive: When you’re talking about separate things that belong to different people but you’re discussing the things together, make all the names possessive: Using ...
Using an unnecessary apostrophe to form the plural of a noun is a very common mistake. Sometimes, it’s called the grocer’s apostrophe because of how frequently it is spotted in grocery store advertisements (3 orange’s for $1!). Don’t do it! With very few exceptions, apostrophes do not make nouns plural. The one notable exception to this rule is the...
An apostrophe is part of the word it belongs to, so it should not be separated from that word by a period, a comma, a question mark, or any other punctuation mark. In the second example, take note of the apostrophe at the beginning of ’twas. Apostrophes that fall at the beginning of a contraction are often mistyped as left-hand single quotation mar...
Sooner or later, you’ll come across a phrase that sounds fine out loud but looks weird on paper because of apostrophes. Do’s and don’ts? Dos and don’ts? Do’s and don’t’s? For cases like these, it’s best to check a comprehensive style guide, such as The Chicago Manual of Styleor the The Associated Press Stylebook(it’s do’s and don’ts, according to A...
The meaning of APOSTROPHE is a mark ' used to indicate the omission of letters or figures, the possessive case (as in 'John's book'), or the plural of letters or figures (as in 'the 1960's'). How to use apostrophe in a sentence.
The apostrophe ( ’ ) has three uses: contractions, plurals, and possessives. Contractions (e.g., let’s, don’t, couldn’t, it’s, she’s) have a bad reputation. Many argue that they have no place at all in formal writing. You should, of course, observe your publisher’s or instructor’s requirements.
The apostrophe has three uses: To form possessives of nouns. To show the omission of letters. To indicate certain plurals of lowercase letters. 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.
Apostrophe + s to show possession. When we show who owns something or has a close relationship with something, we use an apostrophe + s after the name or the noun. When the noun is plural, we put the apostrophe after the s: …. Apostrophe with time. We can use an apostrophe + s to show duration.
