Stop! Grammar time.

 

                           The punctuation station. (2010). Minneapolis, Minnesota: Lerner Publishing Group, 36.

You can find this book here.

Apostrophes, like commas, can be tricky punctuation to use well. As the example above shows, apostrophes have two main meanings: working with contractions and working with possessives. Perhaps that already sounds a little tricky? Don't worry, even professionals make mistakes:

The first image (click on it for a link to the source) is missing an apostrophe. It should be we're open (we are open) to show that you can go in. However, the mistake by removing the apostrophe has suggested the past tense to show they once were open, but currently are not. They needed to create a contraction.

The second image (click on it for a link to the source) has added apostrophes to CD and DVD. The sign means to make these objects plurals to show they sell more than one CD and DVD; however, they have instead written it so that it looks like a CD and DVD own something, though we don't know what. They have created a possessive instead of a plural. 

So let's have a look at how to do this together.

A contraction is a shortened version of a single word or a combination of a group of words. What the apostrophe does in these instances is replace the missing letters or words from what has been shortened:

                                                             I've = I have

Mornin' = Morning

We're = We are

She'd = She would

Could've = Could have

You'll = You will

'ere = Here

A possessive is when nouns and pronouns have ownership over something. The general rule is to add an apostrophe followed by an s ('s) after the word. 

This is Peter's chair. 

This one is not too hard. Peter, whether he physically owns the chair or is just using it, shows that it is currently his chair. 

A hard day's work. 

In this sentence, there isn't a human subject to own something; however, "day" is the noun that is able to possess something, in this case work. Think of it like this: "A hard day of work". This sentence shows that the day has been full of work and therefore "work" cannot be the noun because it has described what has been done during the day. 

Let me show you a couple more:

I am reading today's newspaper.

Stacey and Tanisha's project won first place in Science.

Does that help? Hopefully. Until you meet this one ...

There is one more rule when it comes to possessives. And that is the pluralised possessive. This rule is for nouns and pronouns that are already pluralised, or if they have an s on the end of them. When this comes up, you add an apostrophe at the end of the word only if the plural ends with s, and you add an 's if it does not.

The job ad required someone with five years' experience.

'Years' is the plural form of 'year'. Therefore, to make this possessive, you just add an apostrophe. 

There is going to be a New Year's Eve party at the Smiths' holiday home.

'Smith' is someone's surname. If the word is 'Smiths' this means the noun incorporates everyone in the Smith family. Therefore as it ends with an s, only an apostrophe is needed. 

"The children's toys are everywhere!" 

'Children' is a plural that does not end in s. Therefore, 's is required to show the possessive form of this word. 

Dolphins were caught in the fishermen's nets.

'Dolphins' and 'fishermen' are both plurals and nouns in this sentence. However, it is only the fishermen who own the net to catch fish. Therefore, 's is added to 'fishermen'.

And that should be it. It should be noted that sometimes people will always just use 's for possessive plurals (which does make it easier); and some follow the directions I have laid out here. The most important part of this post, is to know the difference between contractions and possessives. This way, hopefully, you'll remember to add them in before you pay the sign-writer. 😉