Apostrophes are used for showing possession and short form. They are not used to show plurals nor are they used with possessive pronouns.
Showing possession:
- Greta’s book.
(Greta has a book.) - The dog’s bowl.
(The dog has a bowl.)
Showing the possessive form of singular and plural nouns that end with –s:
- The actress’ best film.
(The actress has a best film.) - His mathematics’ book.
(He has a book about mathematics.) - The cars’ big wheels.
(Many cars have big wheels.) - The heroes’ problems.
(Many heroes have problems.)
Showing short form: it’s, can’t, haven’t, etc.
- It’s my car.
(It is my car.) - I haven’t been to Indonesia yet.
(I have not been to Indonesia yet.)
Not used with plurals:
Cat’s, Dog’s, Orange’s, ABC’s.
Cats, Dogs, Oranges, ABCs.
Not used with the possessive pronouns: yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.
Shall we take your’s or their’s?
Shall we take yours or theirs?Our hotel room is next to their’s hotel room.
Our hotel room is next to theirs.
Not used with the possessive adjective its:
The dog licked it’s paw.
The dog licked its paw.
Now try the English Punctuation Quiz.
