It’s fair to say the internet has been a blight on good grammar. Forums and social media sites are literally brimming with poorly used apostrophes, and one of my biggest bugbears is the mis-use of their, there, and they’re. For this week’s blog then, I thought I’d write something about apostrophes, and how to use them!
Contractions
Apostrophes are typically used to either denote possession, or to mark a contraction. We shall deal with the case of possession shortly, but to start with we will discuss contractions.
Contractions are actually fairly simple. The way to make sure you get them right is to read over your work and consider what it is you’re actually trying to say. An all too common error I always seem to find myself coming across in editing people’s work is the confusion of “your” with “you’re” and “there” with “their” and “they’re”.
Say the following through slowly to yourself:
“You’re going to pay for that.” – “You are going to pay for that.”
“You’re looking good today.” – “You are looking good today.”
“Your help is very much appreciated.”
The same applies to “there”, “their” and “they’re”, remembering all the while that “there” denotes where something is, “their” denotes that something belongs to a group, and “they’re” denotes that they are doing something.
Possessives
We move briefly then, to possessives, another cause of confusion.
A long time ago now I wrote a similar blog to this on the back of an appalling example of grammar from a writer and English student no-less! In her Facebook post the lady in question posted the following:
“God only know’s whats in a man’s heart”. The apostrophe in “know’s” is completely unnecessary and poor grammar for a number of reasons. Firstly, knowledge doesn’t possess you, you possess knowledge. Even then, the verb “to know” already implies ownership on the part of the individual (in this case, God). We do not for example say “Mike hold’s the ball”, just as we do not therefore say “Mike know’s the answer.” The use of an apostrophe here then is incorrect on a number of different levels.
A mistake many people make is to confuse singular and plural possessives. These first two are fairly simple:
“The cat’s claws.” (i.e. the claws of a single cat)
“The cats’ claws.” (i.e. the claws of more than one cat)
The problems come however when you use a plural, for the solution is to place the apostrophe as you would for the singular:
“The people’s champion.” (i.e. the champion of the people – “people” already means more than one person so you don’t say “the peoples’ champion.”)
In the case of names ending in the letter S, you actually have a choice. The more archaic (and often my preferred) option, is to say “Louis’ hat”, but you can equally say “Louis’s hat” – you just need to be consistent and remember the audience you are writing for. In some instances it might be preferable to use the second option, especially when writing for children!
Time
Many people don’t realise that time is possessive and obeys the same principles as does a cat or any other possessor.
“A weeks time” therefore becomes “A week’s time” (i.e. the time of a single week).
“Two weeks time” becomes “Two weeks’ time” (i.e. the time of two weeks).
Its and it’s
A common mistake that even I make on occasion is the use of its and it’s. As is the case with so many facets of the English language, there are actually more exceptions than rules, and so you should remember that it’s is a contraction of “it is” and does not mean something that belongs to “it”.
“its” on the other hand, does denote possession. So…
“It’s time we made a move” (i.e. it is time we made a move)
“It’s nice to see you” (i.e. it is nice to see you)
“Its claws were as sharp as knives” (i.e. the claws of whatever it is, were sharp as knives)
Until next time,
Mike
Limebird Writers 