Apostrophes

– The apostrophe appears twice in the sentence below: – My grandmother’s shotgun doesn’t work.

The two main uses of the apostrophe are: – 1. To show omission of one or more letters in a contraction – 2. To show ownership or possession

1. To show omission of one or more letters in a contraction A contraction is formed when two words are combined to make one word: – Have + not = Haven’t – Can+ not= Can’t – I + will = I’ll – I+am= I’m – It+ is= It’s

– Remember that the only unusual contraction is this one: – Will+Not= Won’t

Generally, to maintain academic tone, you do not use contractions in an essay. – Say “cannot” instead of “can’t” – Say “does not” instead of “doesn’t” It just makes you sound smarter.

2. To show ownership or possession – To show ownership or possession, we can say: – the jacket that belongs to TonyOR Tony’s jacket – the grades possessed by James OR James’s grades – the gas station owned by our cousin OR our cousin’s gas station – the footprints of the animal OR the animal’s footprints

Remember: – 1. The ‘s goes with the possessor not the thing possessed: My cat’s bed NOT my cat bed’s

– 2. A singular possessive word that ends in s still gets an ‘s: James’s street Dennis’s yard

3. You do not add apostrophes to possessive pronouns: Here are the possessive pronouns: its theirs his hers ours yours mine

3. You do not add apostrophes to possessive pronouns: her jacket NOT her’s jacket his jacketNOT his’s jacket

4. Possessive plural words that end in “s” are special: Show the possessive of a plural possessive simply by adding an apostrophe: My parents’ car (both parents). My parent’s car (one parent). All my cousins’ cars (many cousins).

– Both of my parents went to the store separately in their respective cars, so both my parents’ cars were at the store. – Both of my parents went to the store in one car.

Exception! – it’s = it is – example: It’s going to rain. – its = possessive form of “it” – example: The dog played with its ball.

– you’re= you are – your=possessive form of “you”

Example: Smith family – the family’s car – the family members’ car – the Smiths’ home – the Smiths’ car