After finding the blog Apostrophe Abuse, I am (forcibly) reminded about how frequently one sees misplaced or omitted apostrophes--particularly signage, but all over the place, really.
You might also appreciate this run-down on the usage of apostrophes at Ballywick, another cool site regarding copywriting. Her 12-step program to stop killing the apostrophe is worth a chuckle.
The rules.
U.S. rules for apostrophe use are quite simple, really. I don't get why people have so much trouble with the concept. Basically, you use an apostrophe to replace a missing part of a word (always a vowel) during a contraction, or you indicate ownership. (And, as a note of minor significance, an apostrophe can also indicate a 'glottal stop' in certain languages when written in English--for example, Hawaiian. And in many, many (too many) fantasy novels from the 80s and 90s, lol.)
OWL at Purdue states
The apostrophe has three uses:
- to form possessives of nouns
- to show the omission of letters
- to indicate certain plurals of lowercase letters
Contractions. An excellent list is here. Just be sure to remember the big ol' bugaboo, the exception that proves the rule: its. The possessive of "it" is "its," no apostrophe; because "it's" is the contraction "it is."
Possession.
First off, what is a plural? And, second, do you need to pluralize? Again according to the OWL at Purdue site,
To see if you need to make a possessive, turn the phrase around and make it an "of the..." phrase. For example:
the boy's hat = the hat of the boy
three days' journey = journey of three days
If the noun after "of" is a building, an object, or a piece of furniture, then no apostrophe is needed!
room of the hotel = hotel room
door of the car = car door
leg of the table = table leg
Singular possession. Simple, really: Just add an apostrophe+s at the end of the word and Bob's your uncle!
Possession when the word ends in 's'. This is basically a style issue, so you can choose to either go the s' route or s's route. Ex. "Judge Thomas' (or Thomas's) majority opinion was that ..."
Possession with group nouns. This is generally straightforward with some logical exceptions. Generally, it is done by adding an apostrophe at the end of a plural word. [Example: "The doctors' lounge is dirty."] If the plural noun does not end in an s, then you just add apostrophe+s at the end of the word. [For example, "The men's room is closed for maintenance."] I've seen it done both ways, too, and I do not think you will get too many demerits for doing it the s+apostrophe way in the latter case here.
Possession with more than one owner. If you have a compound subject, such as "Sylvia and Dorothy" and you need to pluralize it, you use the same format of s+apostrophe to show plural possession, but you must place it after the last noun in the list. [Example: "Tim, Jane and Pauls' new puppy is cute."] An exception is when possessive pronouns are used. As these pronouns are typically placed at the last of the subject list, it can be a bit unclear to the readers if you are indicating a plural possessive. Generally the individual nouns are shown as singular posessive to eliminate confusion: "John and my car is new" is confusing; "John's and my car is new" is not.
Plural objects & multiple owners: Where this gets really confusing. Incorrect but common error: "John, Susan and Peters' homes are all brand new." This is incorrect-- unless they own the houses in common. And even then you should write it differently as this construction is unclear and looks like a mistake! So, when you are indicating more than one object is possessed, you will need to use separate possessives as in "John's, Susan's, and Peter's homes are all brand new." Clear as mud? I thought so.
Forming plurals using apostrophes. This is more a style issue than grammatical. Apostrophes are traditionally used for clarity when pluralizing lowercase letters, such as "mind your p's and q's." Additionally, when there are acronyms used, an apostrophe can be used to show pluralization as well as for possession. Some people write CD's, some cd's some CDs. Check the style sheet or style manual you are working from for the particular standard being used by whomever you are writing for.
Common mistakes.
The big issue doesn't seem to be so much the improper use of apostrophes mistakenly when trying to pluralize so much as people randomly sprinkling apostrophes about on the page like salt on a dinner plate! I believe that part of this problem is the common use of the apostrophe for certain plurals like CD's and so forth-- which appears to have confused a lot of people, who know that an s ending might mean an apostrophe is required, so, because they don't want to be wrong, they drop apostrophes in when there is a plural/word ending in an s or es, wipe their hands and walk away.
So the big rule of thumb for those folks to use random appostrophes is for them to ask the big question, can they form an "of the" phrase from the words in question? If not, avoid the apostrophe!
But, you know, people will still find ways to screw up their signage!
Other Grammar sites for your bemusement:
Grammar Girl
English Plus
Grammarbook.com
OWL At Purdue
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