That Bloomin' Apostrophe!

Source: The Apostrophe Protection Society

Briefly, possession and omission. Yep, it’s that easy.

People get very hot under the collar about apostrophes, me included. First my mother, then my wonderful English teachers – Mrs Campbell and Miss Robson – eradicated any nonsense about misuse out of me at an early age. Like other punctuation marks, apostrophes clarify, especially in English which has only very faint traces of ever having been an inflected language with nice case endings to indicate what a word is doing in a sentence. Genitive and accusative cases are particularly useful in Latin and German!

Anyway…

Let’s look at possession

Not the satanic kind, but people often think apostrophe use can be the work of the devil…

Baseline: If the person or thing doing the possessing is singular, or if you are dealing with a plural not ending in ‘s’ such as children, you follow it with an apostrophe and an ‘s’. If they are plural, and that plural ends in ‘s’, you just add an apostrophe.

Luckily, most English plurals end in ‘s’, even if some add  ‘–es’ to the singular noun such as ditches, perches or varnishes and some by changing a ‘y’ to an ‘i’ and add ‘–es’ such as tragedies, ponies or enemies. The slightly awkward squad includes words that have an ‘f’ at or near the end which change to a ‘v’ such as knife to knives and life to lives.

Old English derived inflected plurals such as children, geese and mice continue to haunt us. Then there are the Latins… cactus to cacti, medium to media, codex to codices and formula to formulae. The jury is out on referendum to referenda/referendums, but I prefer the former. The even more awkward squad includes words ending in ‘–is’ in the singular and ‘–es’ in the plural such as crisis to crises and in ‘—on’ in the singular and ‘—a’ in the plural such as phenomenon to phenomena.

A few general examples:

The computer’s screen was blank.
The ponies’ feed arrived on time.
The children’s toys were everywhere.The witness’s testimony  (the witnesses’ testimonies when there are several witnesses, but more later on plurals)

If you have a noun where the singular is the same as the plural such as grapefruit, salmon or police, treat it as if it were singular and add apostrophe + ‘s’. e.g. grapefruit’s tartness, salmon’s journey, the police’s many tasks.

A good trick to check whether it’s a true possessive apostrophe is to switch it back to the simple, if awkward format in your head:

The screen of the computer
The feed of the ponies
The toys of the children

Proper names

It’s a nightmare, aka ‘personal choice’. The Apostrophe Protection Society site shows the following:

When the name ends in an ‘s’, you either add an apostrophe and ‘s’ or just an apostrophe. The choice depends on the style guide that you’re following and, to some extent, the country in which you live. Thus:

James’s pen or James’ pen
Mr Jones’s van or Mr Jones’ van
Jesus’s disciples or Jesus’ disciples
Keats’s poems or Keats’ poems

Some guides say that we only add an apostrophe and ‘s’ if the possessive form is pronounced with an extra ‘s’ sound. Generally, most guides prefer the apostrophe-s style.

The Modern Humanities Research Association says [some examples cropped]:

The possessive of personal names ending in a pronounced –s or –z is formed in the normal way by adding an apostrophe and s:  Berlioz’s symphonies, Cervantes’s works, Dickens’s characters.

French names ending in an unpronounced –s, –x, or –z also follow the normal rule and take an apostrophe and s: Cixous’s criticism, Descartes’s works, Malraux’s style, Cherbuliez’s novels

The possessive of names ending in -us also conforms to the normal rule: Claudius’s successor, Herodotus’s Histories, Jesus’s parables, an empire greater than Darius’s

However, the possessive of Moses and of Greek names ending in –es (particularly those having more than two syllables) is usually formed by means of the apostrophe alone: under Moses’ leadership, Demosthenes’ speeches, Sophocles’ plays, Xerxes’ campaigns

Brand names and shop names

They do their own thing. The fuss when Waterstone’s changed to Waterstones was bitter and long-lasting. Boots (the Chemist) was founded by John Boot in the 19th century, but I can’t find any sign of an apostrophe even in old photos. McDonald’s holds on tightly to its apostrophe. J.Sainsbury morphed into Sainsbury’s and I’m delighted to see it has an apostrophe. The best thing is to check the companies’ websites.

But this is on a van is wrong on so many levels (or should that be level’s? 😉 )

Aaaargh!

Sins of omission

The second main use of an apostrophe is to show that one or more letters have been left out. We use them every day: can’t, didn’t and haven’t, where the apostrophe indicates the missing ‘o’ of not. Other short forms include: I’ve, you’re, she’s, they’ll and we’d, which are abbreviated forms of I have, you are, she is, they will and we had/we would/should.

These are informal and most often appear in speech or in fiction as dialogue or internal thoughts. I use them when writing in the first person as I’m looking through the characters’ eyes and am in their minds. (I also use them when I’m talking to you as I think we’re on friendly, chatty terms.) Short forms such as won’t, shan’t and can’t are short for the quite long expressions will not, shall not and cannot, which are missing more letters than the simple ‘o’ of not. English is such an odd language…

Dates (groans)

Numbers in dates can be a minefield. A decade has a plural ‘s’ – no apostrophe –  thus, 1950s. If you want to write it in the number form of the Fifties, then it’s the ’50s. Talking historically, we say the ’45 Rebellion or refer to a graduating cohort as the class of ’89.

Apostrophes that have vanished into the night

Yonks ago, the thing you talked into with a handset and a dial was called a telephone. Then we shortened it to a ‘phone. Now we call it a phone and nobody blinks an eyelid. Aeroplane became ‘plane and now you travel by plane. Influenza used to be a killer disease, then we got vaccinations against the ‘flu and now we have our annual flu jab.

But there are many reported hot disputes and popular protests when local signs lose their apostrophe. Is it St.James’s Avenue or St James Avenue? Although I’d prefer full-throttle punctuation on such signs, I’m ducking out of the argument. You decide.

Let’s talk about it’s and its
This is one that often results in an outburst of grammar rage, especially on social media. Irritatingly, wordprocessing, phone messaging and blogging software often inserts a completely unnecessary apostrophe while you’re deep into creating your sentence. Although called officially AutoCorrect, I have renamed it AutoCorrupt.

Okay…

It’s is a contraction of it is or it has and uses an apostrophe to show that contraction: It’s important not to get the wrong end of the stick.

Its is a possessive personal pronoun (like my, our or his) indicating ownership, or possession, or association of something, and does NOT take an apostrophe: The cat ignored its dry food and my patience evaporated.

If you’re unsure whether you need it’s with an apostrophe, just expand the contraction to ‘it is’ or ‘it has’ as appropriate and see if it makes sense: The cat ignored it is dried food doesn’t make sense and is obviously incorrect.

One last thing: there’s NO circumstance where you put an apostrophe after its.

Let’s boldly go into your/you’re territory

As with its and it’s, one’s a possessive pronoun and the other contains a verb.
You’re is a contraction for you are, and therefore takes an apostrophe: You’re looking a bit fed up today, i.e. you are looking, etc.

Your is possessive (like my or their), and doesn’t take an apostrophe: Your dinner’s on the table and I’ve already eaten mine, i.e. Your dinner is on the table (but I’ve polished my dinner off).

What apostrophes are NOT

Plurals

Plurals seem to cause a lot of unhappiness. One thing is clear – they do not need apostrophes. Satsuma’s, tomato’s, potato’s make me think of nails scraping down a blackboard. Just for the record, they should be satsumas, tomatoes, potatoes. If you’re referring to something about the satsuma, then the possession rule applies and you add apostrophe ‘s’. So you can say: ‘That satsuma’s skin looks soft. It must be going rotten.’

Plural MPs, GCSEs, IDs, TVs are perfectly happy without any apostrophe. They’re also correct. 🙂 If you’re talking about something that belongs to them or associated with them, i.e. possession, then the usual apostrophe rules apply, e.g. MPs’ pay, GCSEs’ value to employers, IDs’ numbers are at the top of the card. (Note that the apostrophe comes after the plural as we’re talking about a lot of MPs, GCSEs and IDs. If we were referring to only one MP or TV, then it would be the MP’s assistant and the TV’s aerial. )

Being English, the language has odd exceptions. One is: minding your p’s and q’s. Some write do’s and don’ts. The second, don’ts is dead correct; the first isn’t and I always write dos and don’ts, but then I’m super-picky. 😉

Finding out more…
This has been a quick run down. I’ve checked my workings, as they say, with some People Who Know These Things and I heartily recommend all of them. As I can’t type to save myself, let alone the world, there may be typos. These are solely my fault.

The Apostrophe Protection Society: https://www.apostrophe.org.uk/ They send a fun newsletter out each month – do join!
The MHRA Style Guide, The Modern Humanities Research Association (online and print): https://www.mhra.org.uk/style/contents.html For more formal writing, but very sound advice for any general writer.
The Accidental Apostrophe, Caroline Taggart https://www.mombooks.com/book/the-accidental-apostrophe/ (print and ebook) She has a clear and witty explanation of everything apostrophe-related.

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers –  INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO,  AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO  and RETALIO,  and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories.  Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA,  Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, starts the Foundation stories. The sequel, EXSILIUM, is now out.

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