Apostrophe ( )

2011 by Caio Camargo

The apostrophe is a symbol that is most commonly used to denote omissions or a possessive. Omission The most common kind of omission marked by an apostrophe is a contraction. cant, wont, Ill, theyre, hes, the boys Apostrophes are also used in abbreviations govt for government, til for until The Possessive Apostrophe The apostrophe+s is used with nouns and pronouns to indicate possession The childs toy has been lost. (the toy belonging to the child) Do you know if this is someones chair? (Is someone using it?) For plural nouns, add just an apostrophe after the s. The rabbits fur is smooth. For singular nouns ending in s, both are possible. Mrs. Sellers home is very large. The teacher asked for the classs opinion. Note that the possessive apostrophe is not used in the possessive pronouns ours, yours, his, hers, its, theirs, and whose. its and its its is used for the possessive pronoun meaning belonging to it The cat played with its toy. its is used for the contraction of it is or it has The car wont start; its broken down. (it has broken down)

Apostrophe and the plural The apostrophe is almost never used to designate the plural. Regular pluralization is done by simply adding -s or -es Dogs, cats, hobbits, potatoes Dogs, cats, hobbits, potatos are singular possessives The dogs bone, the potatos skin The apostrophe is only used to designate the plural in very specific cases, to clarify the meaning. One instance is lowercase letters: as, bs, cs, etc Or uppercase letters at the beginning of a sentence: As are the highest marks available. Optional for other uppercase letters, numbers/dates and acronyms The 60s/60s The As, Bs and Cs/The As, Bs and Cs CDs/CDs