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Rules for the correct use of the apostrophe.In UK and US English, the apostrophe is used:

1. To indicate the possessive.2. To indicate missing letters.3. Sometimes to indicate the structure of unusual words.

1. To indicate the possessive.

This is Peter's book.

This book is Peter's. The dog's dinner looks disgusting.

Diana was thepeople's princess. I tore up the men's shirts. One should choose one's words carefully. It is everyone's duty to protest. It is no-one's responsibility.

Personal pronouns (words likeI, you, he, she, it, we, they) indicate the possessive by

becoming a whole new word. These new words are already possessive, so they don't need an

apostrophe: my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs. Note that none

of them has an apostrophe. The house is yours. The dog broke its leg. She said the book was hers. They claimed it was theirs. But really it was ours.

It's means it is orit has. There's no such word as its'.

2. To indicate missing letters in the middle of words or phrases.

You can't have it. Don't do that! I'd like an ice-cream, please. We'd better hurry.

But we don't always use apostrophes:

15, Elm Rd. St Matthew Passion Photo is short forphotograph. It is easier to say CD than Compact Disc.

In the cases where you wouldn't use an apostrophe in the singular, don't use it for the plural:

I had onephoto. They had twophotos. We sell CDs and DVDs. I was born in the 1960s.

But we say this CD's broken because it's a short form ofthis CD is broken.

3. Sometimes to indicate the structure of unusual words.A few words are sufficiently confusing that we want to indicate to the reader how the word is

constructed. The apostrophe can be used for this if it is really necessary, but mostly it isn't.

Hebcc'd a copy to all the managers. Mind yourp's and q's. Dot youri's and cross yourt's. A list ofdo's and don'ts.

But you might consider:

He sent a blind copy to all the managers

Mind yourps and qs Dot youris and cross yourts A list of DOs and DON'Ts.

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There's no need for it in:

She got three As in her exams. All ourCDs are perfect. We sell videos. I'd like two cappuccinos, please.

Childrens' shoes or children's shoes?

The apostrophe goes directly after the thing doing the possessing: The sun's rays = the rays of the sun. The table's leg = the leg of the table. The archbishop's palace = the palace of the archbishop. The archbishops' palace = the palace of the archbishops. The men's shirts = the shirts of the men. Children's T-shirts = T-shirts ofchildren. The people's princess = the princess of thepeople. The American peoples' inheritance = the inheritance of the Americanpeoples. My mother's photo = photo of my mother. One week's notice = notice of one week. Two weeks' notice = notice of two weeks. Three years' experience = experience of three years. Everyone's help = help ofeveryone.

Note that we can often useforinstead ofofshirts for the men. The possessive is much a

looser concept than ownership: the girls may not own the school, but it's still a girls' school.

The apostrophe is used to show a connection between two things: if a dog has a bone, it's the

dog's bone. But sometimes there is no possessive connection.

Sometimes the relationship is adjectival, not possessive:

Accounts department Sports car

The accounts don't have the department, and the sports don't have a carit's a department of

type "accounts", and a car of type "sports". We could just as well have written:

Marketing department Two-door car

A department of type "marketing" and a car of type "two-door". Clearly not possessive.

Sometimes there's no thing to possess or be possessed:

Twelve weeks pregnantThere's no such thing as a "pregnant", and the twelve weeks can't have one, so

the phrase is not possessive. We could say twelve weeks' notice and two years' experience,

because there aresuch things as notice and experience, and in some sense they arelinked to ("given by" if you like) the twelve weeks and the two years.

(Technically,pregnantis an adjective, notice andexperience are nouns. Possessive phrases

need two nounsone to possess and one to be possessed.)

A forty-week pregnancyThe pregnancy is not linked to a "forty-week". In forty weeks' pregnancy, the

pregnancy is linked toforty weeks.

She walks the dogYou sometimes see She walk's the dog, but this is wrong. The walks here is not the

possessive ofa walk, but the present tense of the verb to walk. Verbs never take possessive

apostrophes. It should beshe walks the dog.

CD's and video's for sale.

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This is also wrong there's nothing in the sentence to be possessed by the CD or the video. It

should be plural, not possessive: CDs and videos for sale. It would be OK to say the CD's

label was coming off, andthe video's price was wrong, because the CD does have a label, and

the video does have a price.

Sometimes it's just a plural:

I own three Fords. I reckon Sonys are the best DVD players. I've sold three Ford Mondeos and two Ford Kas.

The plane began to level off around thirty thousand feet and Bill came aft with apitcher of Martini's.

We never learn in this story what was in the pitcher that belonged to Martini.

By this time, the other's, thoroughly entertained by Alberto's frank humour,chortled at such an absurd idea.

Too many writers know that they should use an apostrophe now and then, but they

don't know when. Actually, there are only three times when an apostrophe shouldbe used: in a contraction to indicate the omission of letters, in a possessive, and to

show a break in pronouncing a word. An apostrophe is never used to show a

plural, with one very rare exception.A contraction is a word formed by omitting some letters. Often a contraction is

made of two or more words joined by omitting the last letters of the first word and

the first letters of the last word. Examples are: o'clock: of the clock can't: cannot (cantis a slope or a form of underworld jargon) it's: it is (notbelonging to it, which is its) you're: you are (neitherbelonging to you [your] norancient[yore]) let's: let us (lets means allows)

who's: who is (notbelonging to who, which is whose) we'll: we will (without the apostrophe, this is well, either a hole in the ground from

which water or oil is pumped or else the opposite ofill) we're: we are (were is the past tense ofare without the we)

Actually, the apostrophe does not merely indicate the omission of a few letters. Itindicates the omission of a syllable or more. Thus,go's is not a valid contraction

ofgoes; it is merely illiteracy. As seen above, omitting a necessary apostrophe or

inserting one where it does not belong changes the meaning of a word. In somecases (e.g., we'lland well, we're and were), it even changes the pronunciation ofthe word.

Note that a name with an apostrophe may be a contraction. O'Hara is derivedfrom [child] of Hara.

A possessive is a word indicating ownership. It is usually formed by taking theword for the owner and adding 's to the end. If the owner is a plural ending inan s, the possessive is indicated by merely adding the apostrophe. Examples are:One of the strangest attempts to write a possessive that I ever saw was the use ofsociet'es where the authormeantsociety's. Obviously, no spell-checker was used.

That is George's house. (That is the house of George.) Did you see the Rosses' car go by? (Did you see the car of the Ross family?) That was David Ross's car. Evelyn has her own car. (Ross is singular and thus

takes 's even though it already ends with ans.) The cross's base is set in concrete. (The base of the cross is set in concrete.)

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The three crosses are in a straight line. (There is no possession here, only a plural.) The three crosses' bases are set in concrete. (Here is the possessive of a plural.) The oxen's yokes are made of wood. (Here oxen is a plural that does not end ins,

so the possessive takes 's.)

Note that something that belongs to me isDavid Ross's something. There isan 's followings. Also note that, when writing about my family, there are six

Rosses (notRoss's) because the plural of a word ending in s(and also ch,sh, andx)is generally formed by adding es.

Also, note thatpronounsdo not have an apostrophe when adding ans for apossessive. Thus, we have: hers, its,yours, ours, theirs.It's is a contraction forit

is, not the possessive ofit.

Sometimes, when pronouncing a word, it has a break. When writing that word, thebreak is indicated by an apostrophe. Thus, we seeHawai'i because wesayHah why ee and notHah why. This is a rare use of the apostrophe.

The exception for plurals arises when we have a string of characters (often just a

single character) and then we have more than one of them. If we write with the useof Italics, the string is Italicized but the added sfor the plural is not. (Note how

thes in this preceding sentence is Italicized because I am writing about thecharacter and not the shape.) Thus we might have twoxs or two abs (abab). If,

however, we are not using Italics, the plural of a character is indicated with 's.Thus we might have two x's or two ab's.

Given the widespread use of word-processing capable of using Italics, this use of

the apostrophe is becoming not only rare but also confusing (because it looks just

like a possessive).

http://rossde.com/malaprops/pronouns.htmlhttp://rossde.com/malaprops/pronouns.htmlhttp://rossde.com/malaprops/pronouns.htmlhttp://rossde.com/malaprops/pronouns.html