How to Use the Apostrophe Correctly

Reading a brilliant corporate report, school paper, web page, or blog can come to a grinding halt with a glaring English apostrophe mistake. Your mind stops and pauses. It takes a second for your mind to understand what the writer was really trying to say and then resume the flow of reading. The continuity of the article has been broken, and something may be lost as a result (flow, feeling, logic, etc.).

It's easy to fix these common English mistakes. It just takes an understanding of what you are writing. Listed below are the most common English language apostrophe mistakes, how to watch for them, and how to fix them.

1. Their / they're / there

Quite simply, they're means they are. The apostrophe takes the place of an "a", as in "they're going to the movies." Any time you write, "they're", you should be able to replace it with "they are". Conversely, if you are writing "their" or "there" and you really mean, "they are", you should change it.

"Their" is possessive and means "something belonging to them", as in "their motorcycles rode down the street". "Their" refers to motorcycles belonging to them. "Their" is the plural of "his" or "hers". If you cannot substitute "their" with "his" or "her" (although it changes the meaning of the sentence), you are probably using "their" incorrectly.

"There" indicates a place away from you. Think of here and there. "We will go there when the movie is showing" is an example of the use of "there".

Put all of these together in a sentence, and you have something like, "they're taking their car there". (They are taking the car that belongs to them to a place.)

What is wrong with the following sentence: "their going to park their car their in the parking lot, as their taking the subway".

2. Your / you're

"You're" is always a contraction of "you are." In this way, it is similar to "they're". The apostrophe replaces the missing "a". If you write, "you're," you should be able to substitute "you are."

If substituting "you are" for "you're" doesn't work, the word you want is "your." "Your" is possessive, meaning something belonging to you.

Example: Your writing will improve if you're careful about this.

3. Its / it's

This is a very common English punctuation mistake. Again, you should be able to replace "it's" with "it is". Example: It's time we learn to use apostrophes correctly, meaning, it is time we learn to use apostrophes correctly.

"Its" is possessive, meaning something belonging to it, as in "the subway is a fast way to get from here to there; its trains are on time". "Its trains" means the trains belonging to it, in this case, the trains belonging to the subway.

The confusing thing about this use of the apostrophe is that we are taught that an apostrophe means possession, as in the case of "the subway's trains". Be careful that you don't convert this idea to "it's trains". The correct usage of the apostrophe here is "its trains".

Example: The apostrophe is shown in this example; it's an example of its use.

4. Use of the apostrophe before or after an "s"

An "s" can be added to the end of a word with or without an apostrophe, before or after the "s", depending on what you mean.

Simply adding an "s" to the end of a word without an apostrophe means that the word is plural. "It's (it is) raining cats and dogs" is one example.

An exception to this rule is in expressions using letters or numbers. "Mind your P's and Q's" means "mind your more-than-one-P and more-than-one-Q". "He is learning to multiply his 2's and 3's" means "he is learning to multiply his more-than-one-2 and more-than-one-3".

An apostrophe before the s ('s) indicates a singular possessive word. It indicates something belonging to one person, place, or thing, as in "the cat's toys", meaning "the toys of one cat".

An apostrophe after the s (s') indicates a plural possessive word. It indicates something belonging to many people, places, or things, as in "the cats' bowls", meaning "the bowls belonging to many cats". Notice that if you say "the cats' toys" (with the apostrophe after the "s"), it means "the toys belonging to many cats".

An exception to this rule is that if the word itself is plural, as in "people" or "mice", you indicate possession by adding an apostrophe before the s. Examples of this are "the people's houses" or "the mice's cheese".

There is no doubt in my mind that if you follow these simple apostrophe guidelines, your readers will enjoy reading your articles more -- and come back for more!

Note: The answer to the question in #1 is "they're going to park their car there in the parking lot, as they're taking the subway".