Apostrophes 101

One of the less conspicuous punctuation marks, the apostrophe can still pose problems for writers. Here are the ins and outs of apostrophes.

Use apostrophes to

• create contractions
  • That's (That is) the best idea I've (I have) heard all week!
• form possessives
  • The employee's evaluation was outstanding.
  • Brian and Samira's house is beautiful. (Brian and Samira own the house together.)
  • Hannah's and Shane's cars are each worth a fortune. (Hannah and Shane each own an expensive car.)
• indicate the symbol for feet
  • Shaquille O'Neal is 7'1" tall.
• indicate a quotation within a quotation
  • "He didn't actually say, 'Play it again, Sam,' as everyone believes."
• represent an omission in dates
  • I enjoy the music of the '60s.
  • The class of '08
• create plurals
  • of numerals
    • His 1's look like 7's.
  • of symbols
    • +'s and –'s
  • of lower-case letters
    • Mind your p's and q's.
  • of capital letters when confusion would otherwise arise
    • POW's
    • She has five A's on her grade report.
• express time
  • We will meet at precisely four o'clock.

Do NOT use apostrophes to

• form the possessive of the word it
  • WRONG: The dog chased it's tail.
  • REVISED: The dog chased its tail.

    Note: It's is the contraction of it is, not the possessive of the word it.

• form the plural of short words
  • WRONG: We'll show you the in's and out's of apostrophes.
  • REVISED: We'll show you the ins and outs of apostrophes.
• form verb tenses from all-capital abbreviations
  • WRONG: The radio personality MC'd the charity event.
  • REVISED: The radio personality emceed the charity event.

    Note: It is preferable to write these abbreviations out when they are used as verbs.