Back to Basics: How To Use an Apostrophe

Let’s take it back to the basics and talk about what the heck an apostrophe is and how to use it in your writing.

Where Does It Come From?

Oh, yeah. I said we’re taking it back, so we’re taking it ALL THE WAY back. Back to the sixteenth century, in fact, which is when apostrophes first started to appear in the English language.

The word “apostrophe” in Greek means “turning away” or “omission,” so we know that the first use of the apostrophe was to mark dropped (or missing) letters in contractions. Contractions are words like “don’t” that have dropped a few letters (“don’t” = “do not,” but without the extra “o”).

According to Lynne Truss in Eats, Shoots & Leaves, this was the ONLY function of the apostrophe when English printers adopted it. Oh, how we miss that simpler time.

Later on in the seventeenth century, printers started to use the apostrophe before “s” to mark singular possession, like “the boy’s hat.” Then, in the eighteenth century, they started to use it for plural possession as well, like “the boys’ hats.”

From there, the apostrophe has gained a few more jobs and a whole bunch of rules, and now its function has become complicated enough to puzzle even the most adept writer.

Even though the apostrophe is by no means an easy punctuation mark to master, we can break down its function into a few main roles to help you get at least a good base understanding of how to use it in your writing.

The Three Main Jobs of an Apostrophe

The three main jobs of an apostrophe are (1) to stand in for missing letters, (2) to indicate possession, and (3) to SOMETIMES form the plural. That third job is RARE—most of the time, plurals do NOT require apostrophes, but there are a couple of instances when they do.

Replacing Missing Letters (and Numbers)

Apostrophes mark where letters are MISSING in contractions. Contractions are words that are formed when you squish together two or more words, and you often lose letters in the process. Here are some examples:

• isn’t — is not
• aren’t — are not
• can’t — can not
• there’s — there is; there has
• it’s — it is; it has
• they’d — they had; they would
• couldn’t — could not
• they’ll — they will
• didn’t — did not
• they’re — they are

We use contractions frequently in both speech and writing. The only time you might need to avoid using contractions is in very formal writing, as in a research paper or scholarly article. In those situations, you might rewrite words like “can’t” to “cannot.”

Apostrophes can be used to represent distinct speech patterns, like in the phrase “‘s OK.” Usually you’d spell out “it’s OK,” but in casual speech, someone might omit the “it” and just say “‘s OK.” Apostrophes can show that the letters are missing and were omitted on purpose.

Note that not all letter omissions require apostrophes. There are some words that have been shortened, and the shortened version has become common enough in everyday language that we don’t need to mark which letters have been omitted. Here are some examples:

• flu (influenza)
• bus (omnibus)
• fridge (refrigerator)
• photo (photograph)
• piano (pianoforte)

It’s excessive to write “I hopped on the ‘bus to get to work,” because everyone understands what “bus” means on its own.

Apostrophes can also be used to indicate the omission of numbers when you’re writing out a year or decade:

Her party was themed to the ’80s.

He reminisced on the good times in the summer of ’94.

Possession

Apostrophes are frequently (but not always) required when you’re talking about possession (ownership). Whether you use an apostrophe and whether an “s” should come after it depends on what kind of word you’re modifying.

With singular nouns, use an apostrophe and “s” to indicate possession:

The girl’s book fell from the table.

The horse’s tail was braided.

Jimmy’s homework was on the kitchen counter.

With plural nouns that do NOT end in “s” already, you also need an apostrophe and “s”:

The children’s class got out at 2:30 p.m.

The women’s restroom is on the right.

With plural nouns that DO end in “s,” you need an apostrophe ONLY (no extra “s”):

The girls’s dresses were all blue

The girls’ dresses were all blue

The dogs’ beds are in the living room.

With singular names ending in “s,” you need both an apostrophe and an extra “s”:

Mr. Jones’s book

But when you’re talking about more than one member of a family, you only need the apostrophe (no extra “s”):

The Jones’ house

Like I said in the introduction, there are a LOT of rules when it comes to this little punctuation mark 😅. Here’s a quick summary of the possession rules:

• Singular nouns: apostrophe + “s” (the bear’s honey)
• Plural nouns that do NOT end in “s”: apostrophe + “s” (men’s locker room)
• Plural nouns that DO end in “s”: apostrophe ONLY—no extra “s” (the puppies’ paws)
• Singular names ending in “s”: apostrophe + “s” (Mrs. Davis’s front yard)
• More than one member of a family: apostrophe ONLY—no extra “s” (the Davis’ family vacation)

There’s one very important caveat to the rule that singular nouns form the possessive by adding an apostrophe and “s”: personal possessive pronouns do NOT have apostrophes.

What does that mean exactly? Well, the bow that belongs to Sally is “Sally’s bow,” but it’s “hers,” not “her’s.” The password belonging to the computer is “the computer’s password,” but if we use the pronoun “it” to refer to the computer, we’d say “its password,” not “it’s password.”

That seat is Amy’s. That seat is her’s.

That seat is Amy’s. That seat is hers.

Here’s a chart showing the personal pronouns with their possessive forms in that third column:

Additionally, there are some extra rules for specific old names, but grammar books don’t really agree on what those rules are. Some books will tell you that “Jesus” should not take an extra “s” in the possessive (“Jesus’ miracle” rather than “Jesus’s miracle”), and some will same the same for “Moses.”

Most agree that classical names ending with an “eez” sound do NOT take an extra “s”: “Achilles’ heel” NOT “Achilles’s heel.”

These exceptions with ancient and classical names depend on style and are not set in stone.

Plurals (in RARE Cases)

In very rare cases, an apostrophe is used to mark a plural. The ONLY times you’d use an apostrophe to indicate a plural word are as follows:

• Plurals of letters (“How many o‘s are there in the word balloon?”)
• Plurals of words when the word itself is the noun (“Let’s go over the do’s and don’t’s of the game.”; “A chorus of hello’s greeted the teacher.”)
• Plurals of abbreviations ONLY when the abbreviation includes periods (“Five M.D.’s joined the research team.” BUT “All the VIPs go to a special section.”)
• Plurals of dates…sometimes (“Root beer tasted better in the 1960’s.”)
  • Some grammar rule books say to use apostrophe + “s” for dates, but others say to just add “s” (as in “The ’90s had some of the best sitcoms”). So usage is mixed, and the rule will depend on which style guide you are using.

This Other Random Apostrophe Job

We’ve covered just about every function of the apostrophe, but another place where you’ll see this punctuation mark pop up is in last names like O’Neill and O’Connor (most of which originated in Ireland).

Many people think that the O’ in those names is short for “of” (as in “of Connor”), but it’s actually an anglicization of the word “ua,” which is Irish for “grandson.”

2 of the Most Common Mistakes

A couple of the most common apostrophe mistakes include its vs. it’s and your vs. you’re. I have posts about both of those up on the blog already (with tips about how to AVOID the mistakes)! Check them out at the links below:

Learn about its vs. it’s here!

And figure out how to get “your” and “you’re” right every time here!

Sources:

• American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 7th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2020.
• The Chicago Manual of Style. 17th ed. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2017.
• Ebbitt, D. R., and W. R. Ebbitt. Index to English. 8th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
• Einsohn, Amy. The Copyeditor’s Handbook. 3rd ed. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: Univ of California Pr, 2011.
• Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage. 14th ed. Taunton, MA: QuadGraphics, 2016.
• Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. New York, NY: Gotham Books, 2003.