Grammar Bytes! The Writer's Guide To Grammar

Appalling Apostrophes

  Apostrophes are one of the most misunderstood marks we use. They are used almost exclusively for possessives and contractions. But in special cases they are used for pluralization. Very special cases.

  Let me start by explaining those cases. Apostrophes are never used for plurals except when pluralizing a number like the 80's, but only when it is written in numerical format. If written out, it would be the eighties. There are other special rules for using apostrophies to pluralize a word, but I'm not as familiar with those, so for now we will proceed.

  As far as possessives are concerned, the apostrophe is used in proper noun possessives (i.e Emily's bag), in noun possessives (i.e the bear's claws), and in plural possessives. However, in two special cases the apostrophe is placed after, not before, the s: first, when using a plural possessive (i.e, parents') or when the proper noun ends in an s (as in Jesus').

  There are only a few cases in which an apostrophe s is not used for a possessive, as discussed in the previous chapter. These are pronoun possessives such as their, theirs, our, ours, his, her, hers, and its.

  There are a few other rules to possessives worth mentioning here. In the event that you are referring to more than one person, these are the rules: if the object belongs to both of the two people involved, you add an apostrophe s to the second person's name but not the first. However, if you are referring to two separate objects belonging to each person, you add 's to both names.

  Examples:
Mom and Dad's car.
Mom's and Dad's cars.
Mom's and Dad's toothbrushes.

  Since clearly both parents do not share one toothbrush, you add the 's respectively.

  There's one final rule. If the term used is a collective such as men or women or children, you add 's to the end.

  Examples:
men's
women's
children's.

  As for contractions, a contraction is when a word is joined with is, are, am or not by adding an apostrophe to the end of the first word and removing the first letter of the second. In the case of not, you remove the o and replace it with an apostrophe.

  Examples:
You're
We're
They're
I'm
It's
He's
She's
Where's
There's
What's
Aren't
Weren't
Wasn't

  These are contractions. I feel it important here to mention that there really is no such thing as a double contraction, so in case you wondered, weren't is a contraction of were and not (as in we weren't going to reply to the message). We're and were must be distinguished from one another. Like so:

  We were excited to go to the beach after the long school year.

  We're not ordering any food today, thank you.

  We weren't sure whether or not to reply to the message.

  As long as you keep these distinctions in mind, you'll save yourself-- and your readers-- a lot of confusion.