Apostrophe Bloomers

Apostrophe abuse: Image via Wikipedia

One of the uses of apostrophe is to show ownership. For example, Uma’s pen would indicate a pen that belongs to Uma. The company’s logo and the dogs’ shelter are other examples. For plural nouns ending in s, use apostrophe after the s to indicate possession — for example, The boys’ playground.

Sometimes, a singular noun may end in ’s’. Or, a noun may have an s-sounding ending. You may omit s after the apostrophe in such a case, as in Jesus’ story or Conscience’ constant calls of duty.

Words like his, hers, its and theirs are possessive pronouns. They have possession built into them already, so they do not need apostrophes.

The house over there is theirs, not yours.(no apostrophe in theirs or yours)

The dog is playing with it’s toy ball (use its instead)

It’s common to find many people making wrong usage of it’s and its. The confusion arises because apostrophe is also used to denote missing letters. I can’t instead of I cannot (to indicate missing letters).

It’s, with the apostrophe, is a contraction. It means “it is,” and the apostrophe stands for the missing “i”.

Similar to it’s/its is the pair of words who’s and whose.

Another use of apostrophe is to form plurals of letters, digits or phrases, as for example:

Don’t forget to cross your t’s
The chief guest spoke well, but filled his speech with you-know’s