Grammar Spod: Apostrophe catastrophe

One of the difficult aspects of learning another language for us English speakers is the fact that other nationalities change the ending of their nouns according to whether it is the object or the subject.

Luckily for you, we don’t do this in English, as nouns are nouns and they don’t change unless you want to indicate possession or amount.

Now, this does not necessarily mean that things are easy. One of the most common mistakes that English speakers make is the way they use apostrophes...

Possession:

If you want to indicate that something belongs to someone or something you use an apostrophe BEFORE the final ‘s’...

• The teacher’s book
• My sister’s house

If you want to indicate that something belongs to a group of people or things you put the apostrophe AFTER the final ‘s’...

• The teachers’ room (the room where the teachers work)
• The boys’ school (a school for boys)

BE CAREFUL...

Not all nouns add an ‘s’ ending. Sometimes you only need to put the apostrophe at the end of the word. (Often this is when we use names that already end with a soft ‘s’ or are plural anyway)

• Alexandre Dumas’ stories
• Barclays' customers

It's an exception...Him, her and it do not have possessive forms with apostrophes. His belongs to him, hers belongs to her and its belongs to it. "It's" is a short form of "it is".

DO NOT...

Don’t make the same mistake as the English do and use an apostrophe to indicate a plural. You never use apostrophes to show plurals. This is called a "greengrocer's apostrophe" because it's very common for greengrocers to advertise apple's and orange's. Next time you go into town, have a look for incorrect signs...

• 10 apple’s for £1.00
• Tea’s and coffee’s
• Roses's