Apostrophes Made Easy

Take five minutes to read this first, then refer to it as needed. If you look for the logic involved in these and related situations, apostrophe usage need not be difficult.

The goal is to use apostrophes correctly to show CONTRACTIONS and POSSESSION, but not plurals.

The apostrophe is used in CONTRACTIONS to indicate a missing letter.

Examples: it's = it is, won't = will not, don't = do not,
mustn't = must not, haven't = have not, can't = cannot,
isn't = is not, he's = he is, she's = she is, they're = they are
correct: "The cat chased its tail." (not "The cat chased it's tail.")

Sometimes years are abbreviated by using apostrophes to indicate missing numbers: "We moved in 2005." -> "We moved in '05."

Apostrophes are NEVER used for PLURALS.
Correct: The hobos slept in the open boxcar of the freight train. Not: The hobo's slept in the open boxcar of the freight train.

Correct: How many "e"s are there in the word independence? Not: How many e's are there in the word independence?

Apostrophes are used to show POSSESSION:
There are nouns that are SINGULAR showing possession, as in "I have your friend's coat at my house." "Oh, great, you have Jake's coat." (friend and Jake are both singular.)
There are nouns that are PLURAL that show possession, as in "All my friends' bedrooms are clean." (The noun "friends" is plural.)

Singular and plural nouns showing possession need apostrophes, though where the apostrophe goes is important:

"The apples' scent from the barrel smelled great."
The apostrophe AFTER the "s" tells us there are many apples.
"The apple's scent made his lunchbox smell fragrant."
The apostrophe BEFORE the "s" tells us there is one apple.

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