How to Use an Apostrophe Correctly

For sale: Apple's and Potato's. Apple's and potato's what? Their desire to be sold? Apostrophe misuse is rampant in America. While it may not seem to be a big deal, the ability to be clear in language is the foundation of our communication. Sure, we all know what "For sale: Apple's" means, but when things get murkier communication can go down the tubes. If we can't communicate with each other, what do we have? English is a vast, varied, wonderful, and very confusing language, so it's always best - as Maria from The Sound of Music" says - to start at the very beginning. Its - whoops, I mean "it's" - a very good place to start.

The most common use of the apostrophe is to show possession. Whose ball is that? It's Amy's. This is straightforward until we get to such things as names ending in 's'. Whose ball is that? It's James - and what now? Here there two legitimate choices. You can either say it is James' ball or that it is James's. What about plurals that already end in s? To whose house are we going? To the Charles'. The plural is implied in the context in this situation, and the apostrophe shows ownership of the house.

Note that the question is not "Who's ball is that?" but rather whose. This is a rather more difficult aspect of our beloved apostrophe. It is used to show contractions - words such as don't for "do not", won't for "will not", et cetera. These are easy. More complicated constructions are often stumbling blocks. Is it "its" or "it is"? "Whose" or "Who's"? A simple way of keeping this straight is to mentally expand the contraction. Does it still make sense to say "Who is ball is that?". Of course not. Thus you know "Who's" must be wrong, and that you should substitute its homonym "Whose". "It's" is another one that trips people up, because of its constructive similarity to the possessive use of the apostrophe. Here is a place where thinking through your sentence becomes invaluable. Take the Sound of Music example. The quote runs, "Let's start at the very beginning/it's a very good place to start." The "let's" is a simple contraction for "let us", and the "it's" is also a contraction, for "it is". It makes just as much sense to say "It is a very good place to start". So you know it must be right. Where "it" is used as a replacement for a noun, things get really confusing. Let's say something like "I picked the apple and smelled its skin". The skin belongs to the apple, so shouldn't it be possessive? Because the apple is inanimate, nothing can truly belong to it, so it does not take an apostrophe. Can we expand this sentence? "I picked the apple and smelled it is skin". No, this does not make sense. If you can't remember these specific rules, remember that you can always do a sanity check by expanding your contraction.

The apostrophe seems to be a mark of true grammar and correct punctuation, judging by the way people sprinkle it all over with nary a care. The best rule to remember in apostrophe usage is that less is generally more. For any given situation, if it's not your immediate instinct to use an apostrophe, refrain. Many egregious apostrophe errors arise when people think something doesn't "look right" because it needs more punctuation. If this happens to you, take a deep breath. Think about the sentence. Is it a possessive of a person or place? Then go for that apostrophe. Can you expand it and keep it sensical? Apostrophe away. Otherwise, let well enough alone, and the apostrophe (and all of us grammar nit-pickers out there) will be much relieved. Good luck and happy punctuating!