Apostrophe Protection Society
The rules concerning the use of apostrophes in written English are very simple:
1. They are used to denote a missing letter or letters, for example:
I can’t instead of I cannotI don’t instead of I do notit’s instead of it is
2. They are used to denote possession, for example:
the dog’s bonethe company’s logoJones’s bakery (but Joneses’ bakery if owned by more than one Jones)
… but please note that its, which is usually used as a possessive adjective (like our, his etc), does not take an apostrophe:
the dog ate its bone and we ate our dinner
… however, if there are two or more dogs, companies or Joneses in our example, the apostrophe comes after the ‘s’:
the dogs’ bonesthe companies’ logosJoneses’ bakeries
3. Apostrophes are NEVER ever used to denote plurals! Common examples of such abuse (all seen in real life!) are:
Banana’s for sale which of course should read Bananas for saleMenu’s printed to order which should read Menus printed to orderMOT’s at this garage which should read MOTs at this garage1000’s of bargains here! which should read 1000s of bargains here!New CD’s just in! which should read New CDs just in!Buy your Xmas tree’s here! which should read Buy your Xmas trees here!
Note: Special care must be taken over the use of your and you’re as they sound the same but are used quite differently:
your is possessive as in this is your pen
you’re is short for you are as in you’re coming over to my house
