9 Ways to Use an Apostophe (or not)

“9 Ways to Use an Apostophe (or not)” by Mignon Fogarty. 29 October, 2015. Grammar Girl.

Apostrophes are one of the more confounding punctuation marks. If you search for signs with “grammar errors” online, most of the results will likely include an apostrophe error (which is actually a punctuation error, not a grammar error, but I digress). Here are some of the most common ways to use apostrophes—and some interesting rare cases.

1. For Possessive Nouns
2. For Compound Possession
3. NOT for Possessive Pronouns
4. For Contractions and Other Omissions
5. For Years with Omitted Numbers
6. For Rare Plurals
7. For the Past Tense and Participles of Rare Verbs
8. For Some Holiday Names (but Not Others)
9. For Certain Set Phrases