Apostrophes must be one of the most misunderstood, and therefore misused, punctuation marks in the English language. Their use is easy to get to grips with, yet so many have missed the point and either use them inappropriately, or not at all as a result. In truth, the apostrophe has only two specific uses: either to imply possession or to denote missing letters. Apostrophes cannot, and should never be used, when making a word plural. The best way to demonstrate is to show the apostrophe in use.
For example, the following uses denote missing letters.
- Don’t (as opposed to ‘do not’)
- You’re (as opposed to ‘you are’)
- I’m (as opposed to ‘I am’)
In each case you can see where the apostrophe takes the place of one or more missing letters, where we abbreviate the word (or words) as part of our everyday speech.
The following uses denote possession for singular nouns.
- The child’s toy…
- A writer’s inspiration…
- My wife’s mobile phone…
Where a noun is plural and ends in ‘s’, the apostrophe should come at the end of the word, without the addition of another ‘s’. For example:
- Your parents’ house…
- The students’ common room…
However, if the noun is plural and does not end in ‘s’, then the apostrophe should be placed at the end of the word and an ‘s’ added after it. For example:
- The people’s palace…
Just remembering these simple rules could be the key to using one of the most misunderstood and maligned punctuation marks correctly. For more information on punctuation marks and many aspects of writing, try visiting http://www.freewritingadvice.com .
Paul Docherty has over 13 years experience of technical and business related writing, as well as project managing complex technical writing projects. More of Paul's writing can be seen at http://www.freewritingadvice.com
Source: www.articlesbase.com
