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Apostrophe

Matress — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 23:28:11 GMT

Apostrophe ( ' )

The apostrophe is used when leaving out a letter or number in a contraction, e.g. can't, wouldn't.
The apostrophe is used for omitted letters, e.g. rock 'n' roll, and for omitted numbers, e.g. the class of '72, the '20s.
The apostrophe is used for plurals of letter abbreviations with periods and single letters, e.g. p's and q's, two A's and four B's. Plurals of multi-letter combinations and plurals of numerals end in s with no apostrophe, e.g. VIPs, 1000s.
The possessive of singular nouns ending in s, including nouns ending in s, x, z, ch, or sh, is formed by adding 's, e.g. witness's affidavit. However, if the next word begins with s, then add only an apostrophe, e.g. witness' story.
The possessive of singular nouns not ending in s is formed by adding 's, e.g. VIP's seat, baby's food.
The apostrophe follows the s of a word with two sibilant sounds, e.g. Kansas', Moses'.
The apostrophe is added for the possessive of a noun that is plural in form but singular in meaning, e.g. mathematics' formulas.
The apostrophe follows the s for the possessive of plural nouns that end in s, e.g. girls' movies. For the possessive of a plural noun that does not end in s, add 's, e.g. women's rights.
For singular proper nouns, add only an apostrophe for the possessive, e.g. Achilles' heel.
No apostrophe is used for personal pronouns like hers, his, its, mine, ours, theirs, whose, your, yours. Indefinite pronouns require an apostrophe, e.g. one's lover. For other pronouns like another and others, follow the rule for singular and plural, e.g. another's and others'.
For joint possession, the 's is added to the word nearest the object of possession, e.g. Francis and Kucera's book.
The apostrophe is not used in names of organizations unless actually part of the legal name. The apostrophe is not used in plurals of numerals or multiple-letter combinations

Possessives

The possessive case of most nouns is formed by adding an apostrophe or an apostrophe and 's'.

Possessive for singular and plurals nouns not ending in an S or Z sound are formed by adding 's. Examples: horse's, alumni's
Possessive of singular nouns ending in an S or Z sound are usually formed by adding 's, e.g. hostess's, unless the next word begins with an S or Z sound.
Possessive of plural nouns ending in an S or Z sound are formed by adding only an apostrophe, e.g. churches'.
Possessive of plural nouns that are singular in meaning are formed by adding only an apostrophe, e.g. mathematics' rules. This is also true for a plural word in the formal name of a singular entity, e.g. General Motors' profits.
Possessive for noun that is the same in singular and plural - is formed as if it is plural, e.g. two deer's tracks, one corps' mess hall.
Possessive for singular proper noun ending in s - use only an apostrophe, e.g. Achilles' heel.
Possessive for pronouns -- only for a few, such as: another's, others', someone's. There are no separate forms for the possessive for: mine, ours, your, yours, his, hers, its, theirs, whose.
In a phrase: individual possession is shown with an 's added to each noun, e.g. 'Barbara's and Kyle's bicycles'; joint possession is shown by adding an apostrophe or 's to the last noun in the series, e.g. 'Barbara and Kyle's house'.
Be careful of descriptive phrases. Do not add an apostrophe to a word ending in 's' when it is used primarily in a descriptive sense, e.g. citizens band radio, writers guide.
An inanimate object can have a possessive use. It is treated in a personified sense, e.g. Time's cover.

Forum: New: Common English Questions and Answers - Archived Posts
Posted: Jun 27, 8:14 PM [GMT 1]
Post Subject: Re: Proper use of the apostrophe (Guest:clreilly)
Post author: Jason13_32

The apostrophe is used for two things only:

To signify two words joined: What is = What's

To signify possesion, here's the confussion:

Your bar would be "Harper's Bar" because there's only one "Harper".

If you were all nuns it would be "Nuns' Bar" - Many nuns - the apostrophe is used after the "s"

or

"At the zoo, the children were most interested in seeing the lions' den." - Many lions

Re: Apostrophe problem! Help

Matress — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:17:47 GMT

Apostrophe ( ' )

See Possessives for more information.

The apostrophe is used when leaving out a letter or number in a contraction, e.g. can't, wouldn't.
The apostrophe is used for omitted letters, e.g. rock 'n' roll, and for omitted numbers, e.g. the class of '72, the '20s.
The apostrophe is used for plurals of letter abbreviations with periods and single letters, e.g. p's and q's, two A's and four B's. Plurals of multi-letter combinations and plurals of numerals end in s with no apostrophe, e.g. VIPs, 1000s.
The possessive of singular nouns ending in s, including nouns ending in s, x, z, ch, or sh, is formed by adding 's, e.g. witness's affidavit. However, if the next word begins with s, then add only an apostrophe, e.g. witness' story.
The possessive of singular nouns not ending in s is formed by adding 's, e.g. VIP's seat, baby's food.
The apostrophe follows the s of a word with two sibilant sounds, e.g. Kansas', Moses'.
The apostrophe is added for the possessive of a noun that is plural in form but singular in meaning, e.g. mathematics' formulas.
The apostrophe follows the s for the possessive of plural nouns that end in s, e.g. girls' movies. For the possessive of a plural noun that does not end in s, add 's, e.g. women's rights.
For singular proper nouns, add only an apostrophe for the possessive, e.g. Achilles' heel.
No apostrophe is used for personal pronouns like hers, his, its, mine, ours, theirs, whose, your, yours. Indefinite pronouns require an apostrophe, e.g. one's lover. For other pronouns like another and others, follow the rule for singular and plural, e.g. another's and others'.
For joint possession, the 's is added to the word nearest the object of possession, e.g. Francis and Kucera's book.
The apostrophe is not used in names of organizations unless actually part of the legal name. The apostrophe is not used in plurals of numerals or multiple-letter combinations.

http://dictionary.reference.com/writing/styleguide/punctuation.html

Re: "There/Here is" with plural subject allowed?

eagle2l84 — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 22:56:53 GMT

Hi,

it's me, Ralf, the starter of this thread. Thanks for your answers so far. A post in another thread pointed me to the "American Heritage - Book of English Usage", where I found this section:

According to the standard rule, when the pronoun there precedes a verb such as be, seem, or appear, the verb agrees in number with the following grammatical subject: There is a great Italian deli across the street. There are fabulous wildflowers in the hills. There seems to be a blueberry pie cooking in the kitchen. There seem to be a few trees between the green and me. But people often disregard this rule and use a singular verb with a plural subject, especially when speaking or when using the contraction thereâs. The Usage Panel dislikes this construction, however. Seventy-nine percent reject the sentence Thereâs only three things you need to know about this book. But when thereâs is followed by a compound subject whose first element is singular, the panel feels differently. Fifty-six percent of the Usage Panel accepts the sentence In each of us thereâs a dreamer and a realist, and 32 percent more accept it in informal usage. The panel is even more accepting of the sentence When you get to the stop light, thereâs a gas station on the left and a grocery store on the right; 58 percent accept it in formal usage, while 37 percent more accept it in informal usage. Although this usage would seem to violate the rules of subject and verb agreement, the attraction of the verb to the singular noun phrase following it is so strong that it is hard to avoid the construction entirely.

While this clarifies the usage for AmE, I still wonder how it used around the world.

Hoping for more to come,

cu

Re: Proper use of the apostrophe (Guest:clreilly)

Aastha — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 11:54:51 GMT

As Taken from one of the site.

Briefly, we can say that apostrophes have three uses:

1) To show possession in nouns

We add an apostrophe and "s" after all singular nouns and after plural nouns that do not end in "s":

Susanâs book; Peteâs dog; the childrenâs toys; the menâs room.
We add an apostrophe without "s" after plural nouns ending in "s":

The Beckhamsâ mansion; the dogsâ dinners.
Note that we do not use apostrophes with the possessive pronouns hers, its, ours and yours, but we do use them with possessive pronouns that end in "-one" or "-body":

Give the cat its dinner; Those books are ours.
It must be somebodyâs; Everyoneâs papers are on the table.
2) To represent missing letters

We use apostrophes in contractions like:

Didnât (Did not); Thereâs (There is); Weâll (We will)

3) In some plural forms

We use apostrophes if we want to make a plural form of a noun that does not normally have one:

I am afraid there are too many ifâs and butâs for me to approve the plan.
They are also used in the plurals of letters, and can be used with abbreviations and numbers:

The manager crossed the tâs and dotted the iâs of the document.
A meeting of the most important DGâs in the sector (also DGs).
The 1990âs were very exciting years (also 1990s).