Apostrophes

Hello again. Apostrophes are commonly misunderstood these days. Search around the internet and you'll find that some crazy guy put something important up that had one mistake;the apostrophe. In some ways we understand it. In other ways people just don't get it at all. Do you want to be that confused guy making mistakes on the net? Don't worry we've all been down that road in our minds.



Apostrophes have three uses: 1. To make possessive nouns. 2. To show omission of letters. and 3. To show plurals of lowercase letters.

To me apostrophes have never been that confusing. "Bob's car was stolen." this shows it was "Bob that had his car stolen. This is called a possessive noun. "Bobs car was stolen." Is the incorrect way. In some cases we find a name or a noun that has an "S" at the end. "James' head was dropped as a child." Notice how i put the apostrophe at the end and not adding a apostrophe AND a "S". TIP- Singular nouns you wish to make possessive that end with S have the apostrophe placed at the end.

When you have a plural noun you want to make possessive (Dogs,Cats,Hats) that DO end with "S", you add an apostrophe at the end. This makes the noun possessive and keeps it plural. When a plural noun does NOT end with an "S", you add an apostrophe and a "S" to make it possessive. Example: "Women's basketball is boring to me." The plural noun "Women" becomes possessive the right way in the example. Tip- This is alot like the way to make singular nouns possessive, plural nouns that don't end with "S" recieve a apostrophe and a "S", while the plural nouns that do end with "S" recieve the apostrophe at the end to make them plural.

Think your getting it? The rest is very easy. Words like "It,Should,Would,Could etc." can all recieve different meanings by adding a apostrophe and a letter or two. For example:"Its cold outside." is incorrect. "It's cold outside." is correct. Adding a apostrophe and a "S" to "It" makes the word mean "It is" Tip- For most forms like "It's,Wouldn't,Couldn't,Shouldn't etc." you can take good guesses on what the word means by just adding a letter. Like Wouldn't means would not and Couldn't means could not. If we add a "O" between the n't then we get not.

Lastly to show plurals of lowercase letters. When we sing our "Abc's" we don't sing our "abcs" (If you catch my drift here...). When you think of getting straight "A's" you dont think of getting straight "As" (Notice that makes a word that relates nowhere near to grades.). If we don't add that apostrophe,we tend to mix up what we mean and that confuses people. Nobody likes to be confused i believe. So do everyone a favor and add that apostrophe because none of us want to be confused. (Not just for grades but for any letter.)

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