If apostrophes could have babies, I would say that there’s an apostrophe population explosion going on. I would also say that the parents of these baby apostrophes are letting their offspring roam around way too freely, because they’re increasingly getting into places they don’t belong.
What am I talking about? Sometimes I wonder, but in this case it’s simple.
The plural of a word does not need an apostrophe. One dog plus another dog equals two dogs. (Note the “s” on the end of the word. No extra punctuation–including apostrophes–needed.) Similarly, one CEO plus another CEO equals two CEOs. (Ditto.)
An apostrophe is only used:
- In a contraction: When you take the words “it” and “is” and contract them, you get “it’s”. When you take the words “have” and not” and contract them, you get “haven’t.” The apostrophe steps in for the missing letter(s) and space in the contraction.
- To show possession: Little Red Riding Hood set out for her grandmother’s house. We know it’s her grandmother’s house because of the apostrophe. If both of Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmothers lived in the house, she would have set out for her grandmothers’ house. (Note how the apostrophe is now placed after the “s.” Logically, the word should read “grandmothers’s house”, but that clearly looks weird and would sound even stranger.) Of course, if the plural noun doesn’t end in “s”, as in the word “children”, the problem about the extra “s” goes away and the apostrophe gets used the same way it would with a singular noun. So you would write: “We’re heading to the children’s playground” (note the apostrophe placement before the “s”), but “We’re heading to the kids’ playground” (note the apostrophe placement after the “s”).
This being English, there are exceptions to the use of apostrophes to show possession. Take the word “its”, as in “The tree, its leaves now a golden hue, began to fall.” Note that although the leaves clearly belong to the tree, the word “its” is spelled without an apostrophe. Why? Because, as we saw above, the word “it’s” means “it is”, which would make no sense.
I hope the use of apostrophes makes a little more sense now. So here’s a little test.
Which is correct — 1960s or 1960’s? Is you chose the the former, you get a gold star. Since the 1960s is plural (yes, there were ten years in that decade even if those who lived through the ’60s often don’t remember most of them) and since the ’60s didn’t belong to anyone, you just need an “s” without the apostrophe. Of course, I did throw you a curve ball in the last sentence, but now you know that apostrophes come into play not only when you’re omitting letters and/or spaces, but also with omitted numbers as well.
Ah, thank for for this post. The abuse of apostrophes drives me nuts. But I have to admit, you got me on the ’60s pop-quiz.