Apostrophes

The apostrophe is a small punctuation mark with two very important jobs. Its first job is to show contraction — where letters have been left out when two words are joined together. For example: do not → don’t, I am → I’m, they are → they’re, could not → couldn’t. The apostrophe sits exactly where the missing letters were. Its second job is to show possession — that something belongs to someone or something. For a singular owner (one person or thing), add apostrophe + s after the noun: ‘the girl’s bag’ (the bag belonging to one girl), ‘the cat’s tail’. For a plural owner already ending in s, add only an apostrophe after the s: ‘the dogs’ bowls’ (the bowls belonging to several dogs). A very common mistake is using an apostrophe in simple plurals — ‘apple’s for sale’ is wrong! Plurals like ‘apples’, ‘books’ and ‘cats’ never need an apostrophe.