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Apostrophe S

© Copyright 2000, Jim Loy

In English, Apostrophe S ('s) is mainly used in two very different situations:

1. It makes a noun possessive: "the rock's surface" or "Jim's name" or "the moss' color."
2. It is part of a contraction of a pronoun with "is": "it"+"is"="it's" or "he"+"is"="he's."

That is actually simple, but we also have these situations without apostrophes:

1. Nouns are often made plural by adding "s" (no apostrophe): "two rocks."
2. Some possessive pronouns differ from the original pronoun by coincidentally having an "s" on the end: "her" and "hers," or "our" and "ours."

The source of confusion is that the second two "rules" (situations really) are roughly backwards compared to the first two rules.

Then we have both plural and possessive: "the boys' ears" or "the children's ears." And finally, in conversation, we can form a contraction with a noun and "is": "Jim's going to town," instead of "Jim is going to town." You have to figure this one out from the context.

There seems to be some judgment required when forming the possessive of a noun that already ends in "s." Usually, add "'s" (another syllable): "bus's" or "boss's." However, quite often it would seem to depend on just how you personally say the possessive. My dictionary says that both Jones' and Jones's are correct. Another source says that boys' is correct, as it is normally pronounced as one syllable. In most of these cases, it would seem that you can get away with either apostrophe-s (usually preferred) or just the apostrophe (also acceptable).

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