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Introduction
Apostrophe happens to be one punctuation mark that has been abused and misused as far as the English language is concerned. Most people feel the English language is complicated because It has various rules that need to be followed. Punctuation marks were created to help us read easier but since their creation there has been lot of confusion.
People are not to be entirely blamed for these errors because they seem to be confused about how to use it. The apostrophe has some rules on how to use it. For instance, it can be used possessively, can be pluralized, and used for contractions, explaining why it gets confusing.
However, with the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown that has given everyone a long compulsory holiday, most people may not have used the apostrophe in a while. Some were never really taught how to use the apostrophe; that is why it gets so confusing. Hence, we will be explaining the simple rules of an apostrophe to you so your next content can be significant (Get an editing service to check your punctuation).
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Use Apostrophe Possessively
This is the most common and confusing use of an apostrophe. It is used to indicate possession; for instance, you can use the apostrophe for a singular word.
This can get a little tricky, especially when you need to use it for a word that ends with an ‘s.’ For instance, if you want to make a sentence with Charles that ends with an ‘s,’ you can use an apostrophe to indicate ownership.
Making a sentence like “That is Charles’s cup” the apostrophe is supposed to be used as it explains clearly the message you are trying to pass. Furthermore, for words that end with a ‘y’, you need to be careful when you an Apostrophe. For instance, if you want to say, “The company’s policy,” it’s supposed to be with an apostrophe and not spelled as “companies.”
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Apostrophes should not be used for plurals
This is another common mistake people make when using an apostrophe. This is one rule that should be at the back of your mind, never make the mistake of using an apostrophe when you are supposed to pluralize a word.
For instance, ” there are two boys,” and not, “there are two boy’s.” You can only add apostrophe and ‘s’ if you want to use the word possessively. The plural or glass is glasses and not glass’s. The plural of cap is caps and not cap’s.
All of these are the little mistakes one makes that disqualifies their content. All of this also applies to abbreviations. For instance, the abbreviation of managing directors should be MDs and not MD’s.
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Apostrophe for contractions
Merging two words is another way to use an apostrophe; however, this could be tricky most times as people misuse the words. For instance, words like ‘I’ and ‘have’ can be brought together as “I’ve,” you and have can be used as ” you’ve.”
Also, cannot can be shortened to “can’t,” do not can be “don’t,” ‘you” and “are” can be “you’re. These are used correctly, but in a situation where you used who’s in place of whose, then you have gotten it all wrong.
When you use ‘they’re’ instead of ‘their,’ then you have used the wrong grammar. However, if you know you get confused with these things, it will be better to avoid the contractions completely and use the words as it is to avoid getting your head messed up.
Wrapping It Up
Wondering what the fuss about apostrophe is? It might not be very important, but it is actually crucial in the English language. And whether you are studying English as a second course or you love to write content, or you’re writing an essay, you will need to use the apostrophe correctly to show how smart you are.
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Also learn about other punctuation marks like periods, commas, colons, semicolons, hyphens, dashes, parentheses, brackets, braces, question marks, quotation marks, exclamation marks, and ellipses)
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