Three Main Uses for Apostrophes:
1. To form possessives of nouns.
- To determine if a possessive is necessary, turn the phrase around and make it an "of the" phrase.
Example: the girl's cat= the cat of the girl
Because it makes sense to turn the phrase into an "of the" phrase, it must be possessive.
- Add 's to the following:
- To singular nouns
Example: the owner's car
- To plural nouns that do not end in s
Example: The women's house
- To compound nouns
Example: My sister-in-law's computer
- To the last noun when two or more nouns possess the same thing
Example: Ben and Jerry's ice cream (Ben and Jerry show ownership over the same ice cream)
- To each noun if they possess separate things
Example: Nicole's and Emma's ice cream (each has her own ice cream)
- Add just an apostrophe to show possessives of plural nouns
Example: The boys' baseball game, the students' projects.
2. To show the omission of letters:
- Place the apostrophe where the omission occured
- This is most commonly seen with contractions
Example: do not=don't, he will=he'll
3. To make single letters plural
- Add 's to single letter when making them plural (often used to avoid confusion with other words)
Example: "I got all A's on my report card."
- Without the apostrophe, the word appears to be "as"
- However, with a word such as CDs an apostrophe is not needed.
- To determine if a possessive is necessary, turn the phrase around and make it an "of the" phrase.
Example: the girl's cat= the cat of the girl
Because it makes sense to turn the phrase into an "of the" phrase, it must be possessive.
- Add 's to the following:
- To singular nouns
Example: the owner's car
- To plural nouns that do not end in s
Example: The women's house
- To compound nouns
Example: My sister-in-law's computer
- To the last noun when two or more nouns possess the same thing
Example: Ben and Jerry's ice cream (Ben and Jerry show ownership over the same ice cream)
- To each noun if they possess separate things
Example: Nicole's and Emma's ice cream (each has her own ice cream)
- Add just an apostrophe to show possessives of plural nouns
Example: The boys' baseball game, the students' projects.
2. To show the omission of letters:
- Place the apostrophe where the omission occured
- This is most commonly seen with contractions
Example: do not=don't, he will=he'll
3. To make single letters plural
- Add 's to single letter when making them plural (often used to avoid confusion with other words)
Example: "I got all A's on my report card."
- Without the apostrophe, the word appears to be "as"
- However, with a word such as CDs an apostrophe is not needed.