Correct usage of the apostrophe is a lot more straight forward than most people think, despite all the evidence otherwise (see: internet). In fact, one friendly rule can be used to solve every apostrophe crisis, and that rule is:
**Apostrophes are tags**
Seriously. That’s
all they are. If you think of apostrophes as tags, you'll never be confused again.
Basically, when you’re tagging (attaching) a word to another word, add an apostrophe. When you aren’t, don’t.
Here’s how it works:
Tagging to indicate possession
Rule: When
tagging to indicate possession, put the apostrophe on the end of that word. If there isn't an
's', add one of those, too.
Case 1:
Kirin the Enquirer: “Hi there. So, I have this sentence. It goes, ‘
The laptop belongs to Matt.’ I want to attach the word
‘belongs’ to the word
‘Matt’ in order to make them one word.”
Hello, friend, and how very resourceful of you. Sure thing; simply tag the words
‘belongs to’ to the word
‘Matt’ using an apostrophe and adding an
‘s’.
Case 1b:
Kirin: “Sweet rolls. Thanks! What about this one?
The food belonging to the cat has gone stale.”
Same thing, partner. Merge’n’tag!
Case 2:
Kirin: “Right, but what if there are two or more cats, and the food belongs to all of them?”
Ah, a tricky question –
not! Just go right on ahead and tag’em!
Kirin: “Whoa! You put the apostrophe
after the ‘s’. What’s up with that??”
Nothing, squire. It’s the same idea as before. We took the word you wanted to use –
cats – and tagged it with an apostrophe on the end of the word. But because
'cats' already has an
's', we didn't need to add one. Here’s a breakdown for you:
Word: Cat (without s)
Tagged form: Cat’s
Word: Cats (with s)
Tagged form: Cats’
Word: People (without s)
Tagged form: People’s
Word: Peoples (with s)
Tagged form: Peoples’
Case 3
Kirin: “Okay, got it, but what about possessive pronouns? Words like
its, yours, his, hers. Why don’t they get apostrophes?”
Haven’t you been paying attention? You
only add an apostrophe when you want to
tag words together. However, possessive pronouns are words on their own. None of them consists of two words being joined together (tagged), so the apostrophe is unneeded.
Think about it. You wouldn’t write, “
I think this laptop is your’s” because that expands to: “
I think this laptop belongs to your.”
Yours, by itself, has already done the work of combining ‘
belongs to’ and ‘
you’.
Also, the opposite of
yours is
mine. If
yours had an apostrophe,
mine would need an apostrophe as well.
Mine’.
Min’e.
Mine’s. You see my point.
In other words, because possessive pronouns are words on their own and not tagged words, and because they already do the apostrophe’s job by themselves, possessive pronouns
don’t need an apostrophe – ever!
(Possessive pronouns include:
yours, mine, his, her, theirs, ours, its*, whose*.)
*Examples in which you would use 'its' and 'whose':
"Shae, whose car was written off last week due to its engine disintegrating into dust, is going to the auction today."
"Whose car did you say it was?"
"Shae's; it's the car with its engine missing."
Kirin: “Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. But aren’t there, like, other
itses and
whoses, which are tags?”
Yes, there certainly are other
itses and
whoses, which are tags, but they're different. They come under contractions.
Tagging to indicate a contraction
Case 4
A contraction is an informal word that results from meshing two separate words together. An example of a contraction is the word
doesn’t. It’s the contracted - and tagged - form of
does and
not.
Similarly, the word
it’s is the tagged form of
it and
is or
it and
has.
It’s (with the apostrophe)
always means either '
it is' or '
it has', as in,
“It’s really unfortunate that your car engine disintegrated into dust.”
So, if you put an apostrophe onto
its in the *examples above, then you're indicating that the word has been tagged - that it is a combination of two or more words. That sentence will no longer make sense, and it will be in some serious need of proofreading.
Its = possession (belongs to it)
It’s = contraction (it is/it has)
The only other contraction worth noting is the word
who’s – the tagged form of '
who is', or '
who has'.
Ask yourself, "Which two words am I tagging?" If the answer is you aren't, then use
whose (see the *example above).
Whose = possession (belongs to someone)
Who’s = contraction (who is/who has)
Kirin (drunk): "Choice, thanks! One more thing. Can apostrophes be used to make singular words plu--"
No! Apostrophes
cannot be used to make singular words plural. That’s what the letter
's' does. Apostrophes are, however, used to tag - either for possession, or for a contraction. That's all they're used for. That's all they will
ever be used for. In other words,
when you aren’t tagging, you shouldn’t be apostropheeing.
