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The apostrophe ( ’ ) - Easy Learning Grammar

Misusing or omitting the apostrophe is one of the commonest punctuation errors.

Showing possession

The apostrophe ( ’ ) is used to show that something belongs to someone. It is usually added to the end of a word and followed by an -s.
  • -’s is added to the end of singular words.
  • a baby’s pushchair
  • Hannah’s book
  • a child’s cry
  • -’s is added to the end of plural words not ending in -s.
  • children’s games
  • women’s clothes
  • people’s lives
  • An apostrophe alone (’) is added to plural words ending in -s.
  • Your grandparents are your parents’ parents.
  • We’re campaigning for workers’ rights.
  • They’ve hired a new ladies’ fashion guru.
  • -’s is added to the end of names and singular words ending in -s.
  • James’s car
  • the octopus’s tentacles
  • -’s is added to the end of certain professions or occupations to indicate workplaces.
  • She’s on her way to the doctor’s.
  • James is at the hairdresser’s.
  • -’s is added to the end of people or their names to indicate that you are talking about their home.
  • I’m going over to Harry’s for tea tonight.
  • I popped round to Mum’s this afternoon, but she wasn’t in.
  • Note that if the word is a classical Greek name, or a historical figure or building, an apostrophe only is sometimes preferred.
  • Dickens’ novels
  • St Giles’ Cathedral
-’s can also be added to:
  • whole phrases
  • My next-door neighbour’s dog was barking away like mad.
  • John and Cath’s house was on TV last night.
  • indefinite pronouns such as somebody or anywhere
  • Is this anybody’s pencil case?
  • It’s nobody’s fault but mine.
  • each other
  • We’re getting used to each other’s habits.
  • We kept forgetting each other’s names.
When the possessor is an inanimate object (rather than a living thing), the apostrophe is not used and the word order is changed.
  • the middle of the street (not the street’s middle)
  • the front of the house (not the house’s front)
To test whether an apostrophe is in the right place, think about who the owner is.
  • the boy’s books [= the books belonging to the boy]
  • the boys’ books [= the books belonging to the boys]
Note that:
  • An apostrophe is not used to form possessive pronouns such as its, yours, or theirs.

  • An apostrophe is not used to form the plurals of words such as potatoes or tomatoes.

With letters and numbers

An apostrophe is used in front of two figures referring to a year or decade.
  • French students rioted in ’68 [short for ‘1968’].
  • He worked as a schoolteacher during the ’60s and early ’90s.
An apostrophe can be used in plurals of letters and numbers to make them more readable.
  • Mind your p’s and q’s.
  • His 2’s look a bit like 7’s.
  • She got straight A’s in her exams.
REMEMBERit’s = it is, e.g. It’s a holiday today.
its = belonging to it, e.g. The dog was scratching its ear.

Contracted forms

An apostrophe is used in shortened forms of words to show that one or more letters have been missed out. Contractions are usually shortened forms of auxiliary verbs
behave
I’mI/we/they’ve (have)
We/you/they’re (are)He/she/it/one’s (has)
He/she/it/one’s (is)I/we/you/he/she/it/one/they’d (had)
would
I/we/you/he/she/it/one/they’d (would)
or the negative not.
  • not
  • We/you/they aren’t
  • He/she/it/one isn’t
  • I/we/they haven’t
  • He/she/it/one hasn’t
In order to work out what the contracted forms ’s and ’d represent, you need to look at what follows it:
  • If ’s is followed by an -ing form, it represents the auxiliary is.
  • She’s reading a book about the ancient Egyptians.
  • He’s going to Ibiza for his holidays.
  • If ’s is followed by an adjective or a noun phrase, it represents the main verb is.
  • She’s nervous about meeting my parents.
  • He’s brilliant at maths.
  • If ’s is followed by a past participle, it can represent is as it is used in the passive,
    • He’s portrayed by the media as a kindly old grandfather.
    • It’s often said that rock stars are frustrated actors.
    or has as it is used in the present perfect.
  • She’s broken her wrist.
  • It’s been ages since we last saw you.
  • If ’s is followed by got, it represents the auxiliary has.
  • She’s got two brothers and one sister.
  • It’s got everything you could want.
  • If ’d is followed by a past participle, it represents the auxiliary had.
  • I’d raced against him before, but never in a marathon.
  • She couldn’t believe what she’d done.
  • If ’d is followed by a base form, it represents the modal auxiliary would.
  • I’d give up now, if I were you.
  • When we were kids we’d spend hours out on our bikes.
  • If ’d is followed by rather or better, it represents the modal auxiliary would.
  • We’d better go home soon.
  • I’d rather not talk about that.
PreviousNext
Inhaltsverzeichnis
  • Parts of speech
  • Parts of the sentence
  • Direct and indirect objects
  • Verbs
  • Tense
  • The verb phrase
    • Types of main verb
    • The forms of main verbs
    • Irregular verbs
    • Auxiliary verbs
    • Be
    • Have
    • Do
    • Modal verbs
    • Can and could
    • May and might
    • Must
    • Shall and will
    • Should
    • Would
    • Ought to
    • Dare and need
    • Used to
    • Phrasal verbs
    • Tense
    • Aspect
    • Compound tenses
    • The present simple tense
    • The past simple tense
    • The present continuous tense
    • The past continuous tense
    • The present perfect tense
    • The past perfect tense
    • The present perfect continuous tense
    • The past perfect continuous tense
    • Future reference
    • Active and passive
    • Finite and non-finite verbs
    • The non-finite parts of the verb
    • The to infinitive
    • The to infinitive and the -ing form
  • The noun phrase
    • The noun phrase
    • Types of noun
    • Gender of nouns
    • Showing possession through nouns
    • Compound nouns
    • Number in nouns
    • Verbal nouns
  • Determiners and adjectives
    • Determiners
    • The indefinite article
    • The definite article
    • Nouns used without a determiner
    • Demonstratives
    • Possessives
    • Quantifiers
    • Numbers
    • Distributives
    • Exclamatives
    • Noun phrases with several determiners
    • Adjectives
    • Comparison
  • Adverbials
    • Adverbs and adverbials
    • Form of adverbs
  • Pronouns
    • Pronouns
    • Personal pronouns
    • Reflexive pronouns
    • Possessive pronouns
    • The demonstrative pronouns
    • Relative pronouns
    • Interrogative pronouns
    • Indefinite pronouns
  • Prepositions
  • Word order; declarative, interrogative and imperative statements
    • Word order in sentences
    • Declarative, interrogative, and imperative statements
    • The declarative
    • Complements
    • Word order in negative statements
    • The interrogative
    • WH- words
    • Sentence tags
    • The imperative
    • The vocative
    • The subjunctive
    • Exclamations
    • Responses
  • Clauses
    • Sentences and clauses
    • Joining clauses
    • Subordination
    • Adverbial clauses
    • Relative clauses
    • Conditional clauses
    • Reporting speech
    • Reported speech
  • Punctuation
    • The apostrophe ( ’ )
    • The comma ( , )
    • Quotation marks (‘ ’) or (“ ”)
    • Capital letters
    • The full stop ( . )
    • The question mark ( ? )
    • The exclamation mark ( ! )
    • The colon ( : )
    • The semicolon ( ; )
    • Brackets ( )
    • Square brackets [ ]
    • The hyphen ( - )
    • The dash ( – )
    • The slash ( / )
    • Punctuation in numbers
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