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| Apostrophes | ||||||||||||||||
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As everyone should know, apostrophes are used to show possession; however, sometimes confusion sets in with possessive-plurals. Here is an example: It is my brother's bedroom. [The room my one brother sleeps in.] It is my brothers' bedroom. [The room both of my brothers sleep in.] The one major exception to this rule is its. Since the contration of it is must be it's (with an apostrophe), the possesive form of it, its, NEVER has an apostrophe. In contractions, the apostrophe indicates that there is one (or more than one) missing letter. In it's the apostrophe takes the place of the missing i. In y'all the apostrophe takes the place of the missing o and u. Reminder: since apostrophes show that there are missing letters, an apostrophe should be used in each place where a letter is missing. In the phrase Rock 'n' Roll, there need be apostrophes both before and after the n because both the a and the d are missing. When writing about a decade, there should NOT be an apostrophe before the s. Decades should be written like this: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, et cettera. If there is an apostrophe before the s, then that would indicate that the object of the sentance belongs to (possesion) the year in question. Example: I use 1990's edition of The MAC is Not a Typewriter. If only the last two numbers of a year are being used in a peice of writing, then there need be an apostrophe before the numbers to indicate the missing numbers; if this is not done, then the result might indicate a temperature (or other such numerical measurement). Example: In the '80s... [In the decade] In the 80s [In the temperature range] | ||||||||||||||||
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