Apostrophes (’) helps us to make our sentences short but putting them in the wrong place is one of the most common mistakes in the English grammar. It is normally used for two reasons: to show possession or to indicate ownership and to show that certain letters in a contraction are missing. The rules for apostrophes vary with the type of word. A lot of people are confused about when they can use an apostrophe and when they don’t. Here are a few apostrophe rules which will help you:
- Apostrophes are used to indicate possession. It means that an apostrophe with an "s" after a proper noun indicates that the person, place or thing owns the particular thing. For Example: Mohan’s house or Ram’s car. Remember: a possessive noun needs an apostrophe + “s” (’s) at the end. If there is already an “s”, you have to just add the apostrophe. If there is no “s,” you have to add both - first the apostrophe, and then the “s”.
- To indicate something belonging to one person, the apostrophe put the apostrophe before the ‘s’. For Example: the player’s kit.
- To indicate something belonging to more than one person, put the apostrophe after the ‘s’. For Example: the players’ kit.
- If two people possess the same item, put the apostrophe + s after the second name only. For example: His and Mohan’s house.
- Apostrophes are never used in making plural.
- Apostrophes are also used to indicate a contracted word. For example, “it’s” uses an apostrophe to indicate that the word is missing the “i” from “it is”. Similarly don’t, doesn't, it's, can't, you'd, should've, etc are also used.
- Note: Never use an apostrophe after a possessive pronoun such as my, mine, his, hers, our, ours, its, theirs etc.
