How to Use Apostrophes: The Naughty Grammarian Explains
Miss Grammers wants you to know that the usage of apostrophes is really quite simple as long as you pay attention. Most of the errors with apostrophes don’t occur because of ignorance. They occur because of carelessness.
Here is a simple way to get it right. Use the “Find” function in Micorsoft Word. Do a search for the apostrophe character. Now look at each usage of the apostrophe. Check to see if it has been used correctly.
Miss Grammars will list the rules for apostrophes below to aid you in this task
The Apostrophe is Used to Indicate Possession.
Miss Grammers assumes that everyone knows that the primary use of the apostrophe is to indicate possession. In the sentence below, Melanie possesses a plan.
Melanie’s plan was a simple one.
Miss Grammers further assumes that she can now move on to some of the more difficult parts of the lesson on the apostrophe.
The Apostrophe is Used to Indicate Omitted Letters.
Again Miss Grammers assumes that everyone knows that the apostrophe is used to indicate omission of certain letters, such as in contractions. Consequently, she will give only a few brief examples.
This plan won’t work. (will not)
It’s a simplistic plan. (It is)
“I’ll show ’em," Melanie, said. (I will, them)
I’m a child of the ‘60s. (See: The Naughty Grammarian: To Spell or Not To Spell Numbers)
The Case of “Its” and “It’s.”
“Its” is the possessive pronoun. “It’s" is the contraction of the words “It is.”
Do a search for these two words, one at a time, using the “Find” function in Microsoft WORD.
When you find “its” try substituting the words “It is.” If the sentence no longer makes sense, you have probably used “its” correctly.
Now search for “it’s” and again try substituting “it is.” If the sentence does make sense, you have used “it’s” correctly.
What Happens When a Word Ends with “S”?
It gets a little tricky when the word already ends in an “s” or a double “s.” It all depends on whether you follow the AP Style or the Chicago style.
The AP style says to add an apostrophe. Newspapers and periodicals follow the AP style.
Melanie discovered Mavis’ love letters.
The Chicago style says to an apostrophe and an “s.” Book publishers follow Chicago style.
Melanie discovered Mavis’s love letters.
Sometimes a simple apostrophe is used with common nouns and an apostrophe with an “s” is used for proper nouns.
The letters’ envelopes were unsealed.
Melanie discovered Mavis’s letters.
Another rule is to spell the word the way it is pronounced. According to this rule, we add an “s” to Mavis, but do not add the “s” to letters. We would also add the “s” to words that end with an “s” sound.
Berlitz’s language tapes made learning French easy.
As is so often the case, the answer is consistency. Pick a style and be consistent throughout the piece.
Miss Grammers had decided she will spell it the way it sounds. It is so much simpler that way, don’t you think? Miss Grammers, however, will not mind if you choose another style.
Plural Names Can Be Tricky.
Here are a few simple rules to keep in mind to ensure you don’t inadvertently make a mistake with an apostrophe with names.
Be careful never to make a family name plural with an apostrophe. To refer to the Smith family, we write “The Smiths”, never “The Smith’s.”
Be careful with proper names that end in “s”. For instance, if Miss Andrews has some letters, it is “Miss Andrews’ letters, and not Miss Andrew’s letters. (However, if we are speaking about a man named Andrew, it is “Andrew’s letters.”)
Suppose all the members of the Andrews family have some problems. This would be written as the “Andrewses have problems” just as we would write “The Smiths have problems.” We add “es” to a name ending in “s” to indicate that we are referring to more than one person named Andrews. How then to use the family name with an apostrophe to indicate possession? We would write, “The Andrewses’ problems are looming” (or the Andrewses’s problems are looming.”) just we would write “The Smiths’ problems are looming.“
What If Two People Possess the Same Thing?
Use the apostrophe after the second name if you want to indicate that both own the same item together.
There were many fraternities at Doug and Brad’s college.
If one of the owners is indicated with possessive pronoun, use the possessive form for both.
Doug went to a lot of parties because his and Brad’s college had many fraternities.
If the same thing belongs to more than one person, but it is not jointly owned, use the apostrophe with both names.
Brad’s and Doug’s fraternities were rivals.
The same rules would apply if three were three or more people listed as owners.
An Apostrophe Can Be Used to Form a Plural with Initials or Letters.
Apostrophes are often used when the noun is not a word, but is instead just letters.
PhD’s are required for many occupations.
Straight A’s are helpful.
Mind your P’s and Q’s.
Or the “s” can be added without an apostrophe. Again, it is a matter of choosing a style and sticking to it.
PhDs are required for many occupations.
Straight As are helpful.
Mind your Ps and Qs.
However, if lowercase letters are used, an apostrophe will not be optional.
Mind your p’s and q’s.
Name a word with five e’s.
Be Careful of Proper Nouns Ending in “S” that are Used as an Adjective.
When a proper noun ends in an “s”, it can be easy to make a mistake. If you are not sure about using an apostrophe, try substituting a noun that does not end in “s” to see if it still feels like you need an apostrophe. In each of the cases below, the test shows that no apostrophe is needed.
The Christmas gift was beautiful. (Test: The Easter gift was beautiful.)
The Rolling Stones song got everyone dancing. (Test: The Johnny Cash song got everyone dancing.)
The Andrews home is lovely. (Test: The Smith home is lovely.)
Compound nouns can also be confusing. Use the apostrophe after the last word of the compound noun.
Linda’s brother-in-law’s car was delivered to his home.
If the compound noun is plural, add the “s” to the first word of the compound noun plus the apostrophe with an "s" to the last word to indicate possession. For instance, if Linda has more than one brother-in-law-brothers-in-law and each brother-in-law had a car delivered, we would write:
Linda’s brothers-in-law’s cars were delivered to their homes.
An Informative and Enjoyable Book about Punctuation.
"Avoid apostrophe catastrophes, quotation bloatation, mad dashes, and comma-tose errors..." ---Richard Lederer Whoever thought that a book about grammar could be so much fun to read. After I read it, I kept it on my book shelf for reference. I used it to write this essay.
Be Careful to Use the Apostrophe and Not the Single Quote Mark.
Make sure you use the apostrophe (’) and not the single quote mark (‘). It’s the same key on the keyboard for both, but WORD will form the apostrophe (the curve opens to the left) when you strike the key after another letter, and it will type the single quote mark (the curve opens to the right) when you use quotes. WORD will usually get it right, but in order to type ’em, I typed “them,” inserted the apostrophe before the “e”, and then deleted the “th.” (This may vary with the font you are using.)
Who is Miss Grammers?
Miss Grammers is a lady who is a stickler for good grammar. She wants everyone to mind there p’s and q’s where grammar is concerned. However, in matters of love, Miss Grammers has been known to throw out the rulebook.
Where did the expression p’s and q’s come from? Miss Grammers can answer that question for you.
“Mind your p’s and q’s” is a phrase that was used by printers back in the days when printing presses required a piece of metal (called type) with a letter on it to be set backwards in the press. It was easy to confuse a “p” with a “q.” It evolved to simply mean “don’t make a mistake,” and later it came to mean politeness. It may mean “mind your pleases and thank-yous.” (Thank-Q’s)
Now, Miss Grammers will offer her thank-yous for your attention to this lesson.
Just for fun
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© 2014 Catherine Giordano