Punctuation – the Apostrophe

The apostrophe is one of the most misused punctuation marks in the English language, and its misuse is growing. The apostrophe is used for the following reasons:

• in place of a missing letter in contracted words, such as don't instead of do not, it's instead of it is, they're instead of they are, or an omission, such as the year of '66.
• to indicate possession, as in Tom's ball, Descartes's theorem, the judges' rulings. (Note that adding the apostrophe and an extra 's' to a word that already ends in 's' produces a different sound to that when only the apostrophe is added.)
• to indicate possession to the last word in a phrase or a compound – my mother-in-law's couch; the Member for Canberra's vote
• to indicate possession for joint ownership, the apostrophe is added to the last name on the list, for example, John and Mary's anniversary. If the thing is not owned jointly, use an apostrophe for each name, as in John's and Mary's birthday
• the apostrophe is also needed when you want to indicate a duration in time, for instance, in one minute's time…… or after ten years' experience…….
• you will also add an apostrophe to the word before a gerund, for example, In the event of David's resigning…… Note the two separate meanings in the following sentences, just by adding or not adding an apostrophe: I object to the visitor's speaking Italian. I object to the visitors speaking Italian.
• Use the apostrophe with certain plurals, such as do's and don'ts and M.D.'s

Don't use the apostrophe for phrases like one's and two's – this should be ones and twos, or for the '60's – should be the 60s, or the sixties.

The little Apostrophe looms large

The apostrophe looms large in the eyes of many writers, and it's such a little thing. I see its misuse everywhere, in my newspaper, on the internet, on menus in restaurants, and on signs, and am so grateful that we don't use accents in our written language. Why am I still writing about the humble apostrophe? Because it's part of our language, and part of the way we communicate, so it's important that it is used correctly. (See previous post about its and it's.)

I saw a sign a few days ago, on the window of a real estate agent, that proudly proclaimed, "You're home is in here!" Soon afterwards, I saw another sign, on another window: "Come in; your welcome" was boldly writ upon the glass. The message that both of these businesses were communicating was not what they intended it to be.

Where and when to use the apostrophe can be confusing but if we remember that the apostrophe is replacing a letter, (if it is not indicating the possessive), we will make less mistakes.

By using the apostrophe, we make a contraction, that is, two words joined together by the apostrophe. For example:

You're is a contraction of You + Are, so the sign in the real estate agent's window was actually saying: You are home is in here, which of course doesn't make sense. It should have read: Your home is in here!

The sign in the other window should have read: "Come in; you're (you are) welcome."

As always, we can test ourselves on the use or not of the apostrophe by looking at what we have written. If there is an apostrophe there, read it as the original two words. If it fits the sentence, it's okay; if it doesn't, take it out. On the other hand, if you don't have an apostrophe there, and you mean the one word to fill the place of two, you need to insert the apostrophe.

I'll discuss the use of the apostrophe with the possessive in a later post.

The dreaded ITS

A knowledge of grammar is important in writing, but once you know the rules it's okay to break them, as long as you have a good reason for doing so. Incorrect use of language should add meaning to the story you are telling. Of course, only use 'correct' grammar in dialogue if your character would speak that way. It's rare to find someone who speaks correctly and grammatically all the time, even university professors!

Usually, the apostrophe is used to indicate either the possessive, or to stand in for a missing letter. The former is a lengthy discussion in itself, so let's just look here at its use in the latter. The word its for instance; increasingly of late I've noticed that people are becoming more and more confused about when to use the apostrophe with this word.

The word it NEVER takes the possessive, so when you see it's, you know that it's a contraction of it is.

When you read through your work, stop and take note of every instance where you have written it's. Read the sentence again but this time, instead of saying, it's, say it is. Does it fit? If so, then using the apostrophe there is correct. If not, delete the apostrophe. If there is an its in the sentence, perhaps you mean it is, and so should add an apostrophe.

Here are a couple of examples:

Wrong: The dog was guarding it's [it is] ball.

Correct: The dog was guarding its ball. (Remember, its does not take the possessive.)

Wrong: Its a long way to the beach.

Correct: It's [it is] a long way to the beach.

This same exercise works well for any contracted words but be careful, for example, using there's [there is, singular] when you really mean there are [plural].