The ( ’ or ' ) is a .) According to the OED , the word comes ultimately from Greek ἡ ἀπόστροφος (, ''the'' [''accent of'' ''“turning away”, or elision''), through Latin and French ."The English form ''apostrophe'' is due to its adoption via French, and its current pronunciation as four syllables is due to a confusion with the rhetorical device ''apostrophé'' ” (W. S. Allen, ''Vox Graeca. The pronunciation of classical Greek'', 3rd edition, 1988. Cambridge university press, Cambridge, p. 100, note 13).
The apostrophe should not be confused with the right closing single Quotation Mark (usually rendered identically but serving a quite different purpose), or with the similar-looking Prime (which is used to indicate measurement in Feet or Arcminute s, or for various mathematical purposes).
See Also: Saxon genitive
An apostrophe is used to indicate possession.
- For most singular nouns, the ending ''’s'' is added, e.g. ''the cat’s whiskers''.
- When the noun is a normal plural with an added ''s'', no extra ''s'' is added in the possessive, so ''pens' lids'' (where there is more than one pen) is correct rather than ''pens's lids''. If the plural is not one that is formed by adding ''s'', add an ''s'' for the possessive, ''after'' the apostrophe: ''children's hats'', ''women's hairdresser'', ''some people's eyes'' (but compare ''some peoples' recent emergence into nationhood'', where ''peoples'' is meant as the plural of the singular ''people''). These principles are universally accepted.
- If the word ends in an ''s'' but is singular, practice varies as to whether to add '''s'' or only an apostrophe. (For discussion on this and the following points, see below.) In general, a good practice is to follow whichever spoken form is judged best: ''Boss's shoes'', ''Mrs. Jones' hat'' (or ''Mrs. Jones's hat'', if that spoken form is preferred). In many cases, both spoken and written forms will differ between people.
- Some people like to reflect standard spoken practice in special cases like these: ''for convenience' sake'', ''for goodness' sake'', ''for appearance' sake'', etc. Others prefer to add '''s'' in the standard way: ''for convenience's sake''.1. ''Chicago Manual of Style'', 7.22: “For… sake expressions traditionally omit the s when the noun ends in an s or an s sound.” ''Oxford Style Manual'', 5.2.1: “Use an apostrophe alone after singular nouns ending in an ''s'' or ''z'' sound and combined with ''sake'': for goodness’ sake…”. Still others prefer to omit the apostrophe when there is an ''s'' sound before ''sake'': ''for morality's sake'', but ''for convenience sake''.
- Compound nouns have their singular possessives formed with an apostrophe and an ''s'' at their end, in accordance with the rules given above: ''the Attorney-General's husband''; ''the Minister for Justice's religion''; ''her father-in-law's new wife''. In the examples just given, the plurals are formed with an ''s'' that does not occur at the end: ''Attorneys-General'', etc. An interesting problem therefore arises with the ''possessive'' plurals of these compounds. Sources that rule on the matter appear to favour the following forms, in which there is both an ''s'' added to form the plural, and a separate ''s'' added for the possessive: ''the Attorneys-General's husbands''; ''the Ministers for Justice's religions''; ''their fathers-in-law's new wives''.''Style Guide'', US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/bjssg.pdf''The United States Government Printing Office Style Manual 2000'', http://www.gpoaccess.gov/stylemanual/2000/chapter_txt-8.html
- An apostrophe is used in time and money references in constructions such as ''one hour's respite'', ''two weeks' holiday'', ''a dollar's worth'', ''five pounds' worth''. Although it may not be immediately obvious, this is an ordinary possessive use. For example, ''one hour's respite'' means ''a respite of one hour'' (exactly as ''the cat's whiskers'' means ''the whiskers of the cat'').
- No apostrophe is used in the following possessive pronouns and adjectives: ''yours'', ''his'', ''hers'', ''ours'', ''its'', ''theirs'', and ''whose''. (Many people wrongly use ''it's'' for the possessive of ''it''; but authorities are unanimous that ''it's'' can only properly be a contraction of ''it is'' or ''it has''.) All other possessive pronouns ending in ''s'' do take an apostrophe: ''one's''; ''everyone's''; ''somebody's'', ''nobody else's'', etc. With plural forms, the apostrophe follows the ''s'', as with nouns: ''the others' husbands'' (but compare ''They all looked at each other's husbands'', in which both ''each'' and ''other'' are singular).
To illustrate that possessive apostrophes matter, and that their usage affects the meaning of written English, consider these four phrases (listed in Steven Pinker 's '' The Language Instinct ''), each of which has a meaning distinct from the others:
- my sister's friend's investments ''(I have one sister and she has one friend.)''
- my sisters' friends' investments ''(I have many sisters and they have many friends.)''
- my sisters' friend's investments ''(I have many sisters and they have one friend.)''
- my sister's friends' investments ''(I have one sister and she has many friends.)''
Kingsley Amis , on being challenged to produce a sentence whose meaning depended on a possessive apostrophe, came up with:
- “Those things over there are my husbands.” ''(I'm married to those men over there.)''
- “Those things over there are my husband's.” (''Those things over there belong to my husband''.)
The use of the apostrophe to mark the English possessive ultimately derives from the Old English Genitive case, indicating possession, which often ended in the letters ''-es'', which evolved into a simple ''s'' for the possessive ending. An apostrophe was later added to mark the omitted ''e''; this came into general use in the 17th century. The '''s'' ending is sometimes called the Saxon Genitive , although linguists now generally consider it a Clitic rather than a Case Ending .
Respected sources require that almost all singular nouns, including those ending in ''s'', ''z'', or ''x'', have possessive forms with an extra ''s'' after the apostrophe. Examples include the Modern Language Association , '' The Elements Of Style '', The Economist , and Purdue University's Online Writing Lab . Such sources would demand possessive singulars like these: ''Senator Jones's umbrella''; ''Mephistopheles's cat''.
Rules that modify or extend this principle have included the following:
- Classical, biblical, and similar names ending in an ''s'' sound, especially if they are ''' is very commonly written instead of ''Jesus’s'', even by people who would otherwise add '''s'' in, for example, ''James's'' or ''Chris's''; ''Jesus''' is referred to as “an accepted liturgical archaism” in '' Hart's Rules ''. See Possessive Of Jesus .
Similar examples of notable names ending in an ''s'' that are often given a possessive apostrophe with no additional ''s'' include ''Dickens'' and ''Williams''. There is often a policy of leaving off the additional ''s'' on any such name, but this can prove problematic when specific names are contradictory (for example, '' St James' Park '' in Newcastle football ground and the area of '' St. James's Park '' in London). For more details on practice with geographic names, see the relevant section Below .
The English possessive of French names ending in a silent ''s'' is rendered differently by different authorities. Some prefer ''Descartes''' and ''Dumas''', while others insist on ''Descartes's'' and ''Dumas's''. Certainly an ''s'' sound (or strictly a ''z'' sound, with ''Dumas'') is pronounced in these cases; the theoretical question is whether the existing ''s'' is the one that is sounded, or whether another ''s'' needs to be supplied. A similar problem arises with French names ending in silent ''x''. Many authorities prescribe possessives with an added ''s'': ''Sauce Périgueux's main ingredient is truffle''; but an apostrophe alone is also acceptable. For possessive plurals of words ending in silent ''x'' or ''s'', the few authorities that address the issue at all call for an added ''s'', and require that the apostrophe precede the ''s'': ''The Loucheux's homeland is in the Yukon''; ''Compare the two Dumas's literary achievements''. As usual in punctuation, the best advice is to respect soundly established practice, and beyond that to strive for simplicity, logic, and especially consistency.
United States place names generally do not use the possessive apostrophe. The United States Board On Geographic Names , which has responsibility for formal naming of municipalities and geographic features, has deprecated the use of possessive apostrophes since 1890. Only five names of natural features in the U.S. are officially spelled with a genitive apostrophe (one example being Martha's Vineyard ). On the other hand, Britain has Bishop's Stortford , Bishop's Castle and King's Lynn (but St Albans , St Andrews and St Helens ) and, while Newcastle United play at St James' Park , and Exeter City at St James Park , London has a St James's Park (this whole area of London is named after St James's Church, Piccadilly St James's Church Piccadilly website ). The special circumstances of the latter case may be this: the customary pronunciation of this place name is reflected in the addition of an extra ''-s''; since usage is firmly against a doubling of the final ''-s'' without an apostrophe, this place name has an apostrophe. This could be regarded as an example of a double genitive: it refers to the park ''of'' the church ''of'' St James. None of this detracts from the fact that omission of the apostrophe in geographical names is becoming a clear standard in most English-speaking countries, including Britain and Australia.
Where a business name is based on a family name, it may or may not take an apostrophe (compare '' Sainsbury's '' and '' Harrods ''), though in recent times there has been an increasing tendency to drop the apostrophe. Names based on a first name are more likely to take an apostrophe (''Joe's Crab Shack''). The Apostrophe Protection Society has campaigned for large retailers such as Harrods, Currys and Selfridges to reinstate their missing punctuation. A spokesperson for Barclays Plc stated, “It has just disappeared over the years. Barclays is no longer associated with the family name.” Times Online: Harrods told to put its apostrophe back .
An apostrophe is commonly used to indicate omitted characters:
- It is used in Contraction s, such as ''can't'' from ''cannot'', ''it's'' from ''it is'' or ''it has'', and ''I'll'' from ''I will'' or ''I shall''.
- The word ''fo'c's'le'' is notable in English for having three apostrophes; the alternative spelling without omissions is “forecastle”.
- It is used in Abbreviation s, as ''gov't'' for ''government'', or '' '70s'' for ''1970s''. In modern usage, apostrophes are generally omitted when letters are removed from the start of a word. For example, it is not common to write '' 'bus'' (for ''omnibus''), '' 'phone'' (''telephone''), '' 'net'' (''Internet''). However, if the shortening is unusual, dialectal or archaic, the apostrophe may still be used to mark it (e.g., '' 'bout'' for ''about'', '' 'less'' for ''unless'', '' 'twas'' for ''it was''). Sometimes a misunderstanding of the original form of a word results in an incorrect contraction. A common example: '' 'til'' for ''until'', though ''till'' is in fact the original form, and ''until'' is derived from it.
- It is sometimes used when the normal form of an inflection seems awkward or unnatural; for example, ''KO'd'' rather than ''KOed'' (where ''KO'' is used as a verb meaning “to knock out”), or ''n'th'' (an unspecified Ordinal ) rather than ''nth''.
- In certain colloquial contexts an apostrophe's function as possessive or contractive can depend on other punctuation.
- We rehearsed for Friday's opening night. (''We rehearsed for the opening night on Friday.'')
- We rehearsed, for Friday's opening night. (''We rehearsed because Friday is opening night.'')
An apostrophe is used by some writers to form a Plural for abbreviations, Acronym s, and symbols where adding just ''s'' rather than '''s'' may leave things ambiguous or inelegant. While British English formerly endorsed the use of such apostrophes after numbers and dates, this usage has now largely been superseded. Some specific cases:
- It is generally acceptable to use apostrophes to show plurals of single lower-case letters, such as ''be sure to dot your i's and cross your t's''. Some style guides would prefer to use a change of font: ''dot your'' i''s and cross your'' t''s.'' Upper case letters need no apostrophe as there is no risk of misreading: ''I got three As in my exams.'' 2
- For groups of years, the apostrophe at the end cannot be regarded as necessary, since there is no possibility of misreading. For this reason, most authorities prefer ''1960s'' to ''1960's'' (although the latter is noted by at least one source as acceptable in American usage), Guide to Punctuation , Larry Trask, University of Sussex: “American usage, however, does put an apostrophe here: (A) This research was carried out in the 1970's.” and ''90s'' or'' '90s'' to'' 90's'' or '''90's''.
- The apostrophe is sometimes used in forming the plural of numbers (for example, ''1000's of years''); however, as with groups of years, it is unnecessary: there is no possibility of misreading. Most sources are against this usage.
- The apostrophe is often used in plurals of symbols. Again, since there can be no misreading, this is also wrong. ''That page has too many &s and #s on it.''
- Finally, a few sources accept its use in an alternative spelling of the plurals of a very few short words, such as ''do'', ''ex'', ''yes'', ''no'', which become ''do's'', ''ex's'', etc. AskOxford.com In each case, ''dos'', ''exes'', ''yeses'' (or ''yesses'') and ''noes'' would be preferred by most authorities. Nevertheless, many writers are still inclined to use such an apostrophe when the word is thought to look awkward or unusual without one.
- Irish surnames often contain an apostrophe after an ''O'', for example ''O'Reilly''. This arose from a rendering of the Irish ''Ó'' .
- Some Scottish and Irish surnames use an apostrophe after an ''M'', for example ''M'Gregor''. The apostrophe here may be seen as marking a contraction where the prefix ''Mc'' or '' Mac '' would normally appear. (Note, however, that in earlier and meticulous current usage, it is‘ – a kind of reversed apostrophe that is sometimes called a ''turned comma'', which eventually came to be written as the letter ''c'', whose shape is similar.)
- French and Italian surnames sometimes contain apostrophes, e.g. ''D'Angelo''.
- In Science Fiction , the apostrophe is often used to decorate alien names.
Apostrophes used incorrectly to form plurals are known as ''greengrocers’ apostrophes'' (or ''grocers’ apostrophes'', or sometimes humorously ''greengrocers apostrophe’s''). The practice comes from the identical sound of the plural and possessive forms of most English Noun s. It is often considered a form of Hypercorrection coming from a widespread ignorance of the proper use of the apostrophe or of punctuation in general. Lynne Truss, author of '' Eats, Shoots & Leaves '', points out that before the 19th Century, it was standard orthography to use the apostrophe to form a plural of a foreign-sounding word that ended in a vowel (e.g. banana’s, folio’s, logo’s, quarto’s, pasta’s, ouzo’s) to clarify pronunciation. Truss says this usage is no longer considered proper in formal writing.Truss, Lynn. Eats, Shoots & Leaves. pp. 63–5.
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