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The Inappropriate Use of Apostrophe's

  • Kelly E
  • Apr 10, 2021
  • 2 min read

Updated: May 23, 2021


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We see apostrophes used when they shouldn't be used, and not used when they should be, all the time. The rules for the use of the apostrophe are simple for the most part, but can get a little bogged down.



The Easy Rules


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Always Use an apostrophe when showing possession, as in Carol's ring, the dog's dish, and the city's skyline. In the case of a pluralized noun that ends in "s", the apostrophe is placed after the "s", as in "Members' Lounge". Note that this applies only to pluralized nouns which end in "s". If a singular noun ends in "s", we still use an apostrophe in the normal way, such as "James's book".


Always Use an apostrophe as a contraction of the word “is” or “us”, as in “Gary's a nice guy”, and “Let's go to a movie”. Apostrophes are also used in other contractions, such as “we're” for “we are” and “don't” for “do not”



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Never Use an apostrophe to pluralize words. For most English words, we simply add an “S” to the end of a noun to change it from singular to plural; “bed” becomes “beds” and “drum” becomes “drums”. Click here to read more about pluralization.





The Nit-picky Stuff

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There's some disagreement about using apostrophes to pluralize words that are abbreviated anagrams, such as TV. Strictly speaking, TV should be pluralized by simply adding an “s” to the end, making it “TVs”. However, we often see it written as “TV's”, which is an unnecessary and technically improper use of the apostrophe. This type of error is so common that most grammarians have simply thrown their hands in the air and declared “I give up, go ahead and use the damn thing if you really have to”. It's kind of okay-ish to us it, but if you're reading this article, you know better, right?



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Having said that, let's make sure that we understand that there is a difference between an abbreviation and a short form of a word. “Photo” is a short form of “Photograph”, but it is nonetheless a complete word in its own right, just like “Pro” is for “Professional”. Their pluralized forms would remain “Photos” and “Pros”.



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There is one rule that seems contradict the use of the apostrophe to indicate possession, and that is the word “It”. When an object possesses something, as in “the city's skyline”, the proper way to express this is “its skyline”, not “it's skyline”. Why is this? Let's look at the three most common pronouns, He, She, and It. The possessive forms of He and She are His and Hers. Notice that there is no apostrophe in either of those, ergo there is no apostrophe in Its. But yes, you still use an apostrophe when “It's” is a contraction of “It is”.


And yes, these last two sentences both began with a conjunction. But why stop at two when we can break a grammatical rule three times?












 
 
 

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