CHAPTER 4

The Apostrophe

English is an extremely flexible language and has a number of advantages over most other languages.

One of these advantages is the humble apostrophe. This tiny mark enables us to communicate faster and
with less effort while still retaining clarity.

“Never use an apostrophe when a plural is intended.”

The apostrophe is used in the possessive and in contractions, and most native speakers would find it
difficult to converse for even ten minutes without using a contraction, nor could they go half a day without
using the possessive.
Many languages have no equivalent. For example in Spanish we must say “the house of Mary,”
whereas in English we reduce these four words to only two and say “Mary’s house.” Similarly, in most
languages we must say “I will not,” but in English we reduce this to “I won’t.”

Spelling rule #1: The possessive apostrophe indicates ownership. To use the possessive apostrophe
simply add an apostrophe to the noun plus the letter s, then add the subject that is under discussion.

(^) Words ending in y do not change the y to i.
(^) Spelling rule #2: If the noun already ends in an s or if the noun is plural, the apostrophe is added
after the s.
(^) If the plural noun is a special word, such as women or children or mice, then the rule applies and the
apostrophe must be placed before the s.
(^) Pronouns such as yours, ours, theirs, and its do not use an apostrophe.
Spelling rule #3: The apostrophe is never used with regular plurals.
(^) Note that there is often confusion between it’s and its. The apostrophe indicates a contraction so It is a
nice day becomes It’s a nice day. The its without the apostrophe indicates possession: The cat put its
paw in its milk.
If the object belongs to two or more persons, then the apostrophe and the s are used only with the final
person mentioned.
(^) The possessive apostrophe plus s should be no problem yet almost daily we can find examples of its
misuse. Usually the error involves the plural. The rule is clear: never use an apostrophe when a non-
possessive plural is intended.