Editor's Corner

A big “thank you” to Anil K., who always provides me with challenging grammar questions and who provided me with some great material on apostrophe marks. We’ve covered these things before, but this is one of those topics that confuses a lot of folks, so it’s always a good time for a reminder. Most of the following reminders are from class material he shared with me.

This little punctuation mark may be the most misunderstood and incorrectly used.

Here’s the lowdown: the apostrophe is used to show contractions and to show possession (ownership).

• Contractions: two words blended into one

Here are some common examples:

• Do not = Don’t
• Does not = Doesn’t
• Is not = Isn’t
• It is = it’s
• It has = it’s (Its without the apostrophe indicates ownership)
• Will not = Won’t
• Let us = Let’s
• You are = You’re (Your without the apostrophe indicates ownership)
• They are = They’re (Their without the apostrophe indicates ownership)

• Possession or ownership: to whom something belongs (indicated by the ‘s)

  Here are some common examples:

• The girl’s dog
• The children’s room
• The bank’s website
• Chris’s xylophone (the CMOS has the ‘s even after words ending in “s”)
• Mandy’s apricot farm

A simple rule for the road: Do not use an apostrophe to make a word plural.

Correct: The coordinators will manage that process.

Incorrect: The coordinator’s will manage that process.

Correct: The FIs are reading the Release Notes.

Incorrect: The FI’s are reading the Release Notes.

Of course, there is one exception to the apostrophe/plural word rule, and that is when it is used for clarity to show the plural of single letters.

• Mind your p’s and q’s.
• He got all A’s this term.

And now, some failed apostrophe use for your viewing pleasure.

And a comic several of you have sent in before:

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

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