Punctuation
Apostrophes
An apostrophe is used to indicate that a subject possesses or owns an object. For example:
- George's car. (i.e. the car belonging to or of George)
- The council's car park. (i.e. the car park of the council).
In both of these cases an 's' follows the apostrophe.
For plural nouns ending with an 's', it is usually not necessary to add an 's'. For example:
- cows' milk (i.e. the milk of the cows)
- lawyers' fees (i.e. the fees of lawyers).
However, nouns that end with an 's', and are not plural nouns, often require an additional 's'. For example:
- Charles's lecture notes. (i.e. the lecture notes of Charles).
Apostrophes can also be used to indicate that a letter has been left out of a word. Common examples are:
- don't (do not)
- hasn't (has not)
- can't (can not)
- won't (will not)
- it's (it is)
These contractions are not usually used in formal writing such as essays, reports and so on.
Note also that 'it's' does not designate possession. The word 'its' is the possessive form of 'it'. For example:
- The snake shed its skin (i.e. the skin belongs to 'it')
- It's the snake's skin (i.e. It is the skin of the snake).