Apostrophes – how to use them
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Definition
The apostrophe is a raised comma — like this ( ‘ ).
It is used to show possession and to punctuate contractions.
Examples
Possession- My mother’s house – The girl’s bicycle
The house belongs to my mother – The bicycle belongs to the girl
Contractions- There’s nobody here – Where’s Freddy?
There is nobody here – Where is Freddy?
Use
We can write The tail of the dog or The dog’s tail. This is possession – when something belongs to someone or something.
We can also write It is a lovely day or It’s a lovely day. This is contraction – when two words are merged. The apostrophe is used to denote the missing letter.
NB! Many people have problems with the apostrophe. [You're not alone.] Read on!
Possession
When the possessor is single we indicate possession by using an apostrophe followed by the letter s:
The man’s coat
my sister’s hat
When the possessors are plural, the apostrophe is placed after the final s:
The girls’ bicycles
my cousins’ parents
When names end with the letter ’s’, either use is acceptable:
James’ wife or
James’s wife
[It is often said that the choice between the two should be made on how the word is pronounced.]
The apostrophe is never used with possessive pronouns:
his – hers – its – ours – yours – theirs
But it is used with one: One must do one’s best.
Note that the apostrophe is not required where a word has been formed by omitting its first part:
bus – not – ‘bus [from omnibus]
phone – not – ‘phone [from telephone]
No apostrophe is required in the plural form of numbers and dates:
in the 1920s
the roaring twenties
Contractions
In formal writing we would write She has always loved him, but when speaking we would probably say She’s always loved him. The apostrophe is used to indicate the missing letters (or sounds).
I’m (I am) He’s (He is) You’re (You are)
Notice the difference between it’s (it is) and its (belonging to it).
NB! There is no such thing as its’
The use of contractions tends to make writing less formal.
It is just possible that the apostrophe will be the next linguistic feature to disappear from common use.
It causes lots of problems, and in most cases the context would make the meaning clear even if it were missing.
It is in fact a relic from the days when English was an inflected language. This may be a reason for the problems, and it would form some justification for its disappearance.
© Mantex 1992
- English Language 3.0
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I refer the right honourable gentleman to the answer given above. I don’t speak Old English, but it would have been written Joees.
Thank you Mantex.
As the apostrophe replaces what would have been a letter ‘e’ in old English, how is it appropriate that such words as “Joe’s” have an apostrophe? Is this a commonplace, but nevertheless technically incorrect, use?
As a matter of fact, the first and third are both OK (with the tird the more elegant option) – but the second is not.
There could be no such thing as Bob’
It might help to know that the apostrophe replaces what was once a letter ‘e’.
In old English it would have been written ‘Bobes and Joees house’.
How would an apostrophe be used in the case of what I expect could be called “multiple posession”:
• Bob’s and Joe’s house;
• Bob’ and Joe’s house; or
• Bob and Joe’s house?
Just for the record, I believe the second answer to be the correct answer – please delete this line, should I be incorrect!!
Ta…
That’s an interesting case you raise here Jane.
I would say that a) the years are clearly plural, and b) the term ‘experience’ contains its own notion of possession. Therefore no apostrophe is required.
An equivalent would be an expression such as ‘in five years time I will be twenty-nine’.
However, a colleague to whom I posed this example replied as follows
It’s very simple
‘I have eight years’ experience’. Do the reversing trick and you get ‘I have the experience of eight years’ .
It’s another example supporting the idea that it is difficult to find examples where the apostrophe supplies clarity or removes ambiguity. In other words – we could do without it.
Cheers
help!
For some reason I always struggle with the use of the apostrophe after time periods. Words like days / years. etc.
I’m writing my CV at the moment and want to say ‘I have eight year’s experience in …..’
Is the use of the apostrophe above correct? Because the time period possesses the experience? or should it be years’ (because multiple years possess the experience) Or am I completely over thinking this and the apostrophe is not necessary as the years don’t possess anything at all?
not the the company I’m sending it to will know or give a toss, but I just want to get it right
I imagine you are thinking of the expression ‘the fruits OF war’ – which does not require an apostrophe. That’s because the possession is supplied by ‘of’.
However – to take your question literally:
‘The fruits’ war’ means the war belonging to the fruits.
‘the fruits war’ means a war concerning fruits, as distinct from one concerning vegetables. In other words, the term ‘fruits’ is being used as an adjective.
Hope that helps.
Are there any differences between ‘The fruits’ war’ and ‘the fruits war’?
Well Sarah, that’s a very good example of the difficulties this old item of English language leads us in to. I would say you have two options. The first is to use “St Swithin’s Got Talent”: everybody would understand what was meant. The second (if you want to appease any pedants in advance) is to use “St Swithun’s has Got Talent”, which is grammatically correct, but a bit clumsy.
There is no such thing as a double apostrophe – so you can forget that option.
Note that this is also a good exmple of how the disappearance of the apostrophe would make no difference at all. “St Swithuns Got Talent” is perfectly comprehensible and unambiguous.
I didn’t realise that there was a Saint Swithun, as well as a Saint Swithin.
Also note that you do not need a full stop after St (the contraction of Saint).
Please help! Where would the apostrophe go on a poster advertising a talent show at our school which is called St. Swithun’s School? We want to call the show ‘St. Swithun’s Got Talent’ meaning St.Swithun’s School HAS got Talent! Should it be St Swithun’s Got Talent or St. Swithuns’ got Talent or with 2 apostrophes, one for the possession and one for the contraction?
I appalud your egalitarian sentiment, but the fact is that the apostrophe causes many people problems. And in fact it need not do so – because without it, we would be no worse off. It’s dificult to find cases where its absence would be problemmatic. Some business copmanies – Barclays Bank for instance – have already dropped it.
Don’t kill yourself. Keep having fun. Maybe stop using them – and see what happens?
Mantex, who cares if they are not strictly necessary; one of the most beautiful things about languages (written or spoken) is the ability to represent the same thing in different ways and the ability of the same representation to mean different things.
Without this there would be no jokes – therefore no fun – and i for one, would kill myself.
In such cases the raised comma is being used to show quotation. It is not functioning as an apostrophe.
As a matter of fact, they are not strictly necessary in the case of ‘quotation’ and ‘possession’ – so I am going to remove them and show those terms in italics.
Thanks for the observation.
NB: you use apostrophes in your header to indicate ‘quotation’ but make no reference to this usage in your text. Der.