It's been a long time since I wrote anything here. Haven't really found time to blog much off late. What will all the relocating! It was quite a mess.
New broadband connection set-up and working perfectly. So, let's get to business!
I have been meaning to write this article from a long time (eternal procrastinator). On a serious note, the reason I didn't think it was important was because I thought people would understand and use the apostrophe properly. But, NO! The misuse and abuse of the poor little thing is incessant and doesn't seem to be getting any better. Even professionals I know are good with the English language seem to misuse the fella'.
So, let me just give you a "crash course", if you will, about the proper usage of the apostrophe in different cases.
First off, apostrophe is mainly used for two and only two reasons:
1) To indicate possession
2) As a contraction
In no case, I mean in ABSOLUTELY NO INSTANCE, does apostrophe indicate plural. NEVER. No. It's not meant for that.
Possession vs. Plural
If the hat belongs to the kid, you say, "The kid's hat." Here, the apostrophe indicates that the hat belongs to the kid.
If you love kids (who doesn't!) and you wish to express the same, you say, "I love kids!" Note how there is no apostrophe? That's because it indicates plural form of kid - kids. There is no possession here. You are not expressing whose kids, just kids, of any kind.
Now, let's say you wish to say you love the kids(again, no apostrophe) that your sister has spawned. In this case, you say, "I love my sister's kids!" The apostrophe in "sister's" indicates that the "kids" belong to "sister".
English is a funny language. The letter 's' is used for both possession and plural. Let's now look at some peculiar cases.
Normal word - Nurse
Plural of nurse is "nurses" (s at the end is used to indicate that there are multiple nurse).
Eg., I visited the hospital today and ran into a lot of nurses.
"nurse's" indicates something that belongs to a nurse (s preceded by our dear little friend the apostrophe indicates something that belongs to a nurse. Just one nurse).
Eg., I visited the hospital today to return the nurse's pants. (I will let you explain how they ended up with you).
Now for the peculiar case. How do you say something that belongs to a bunch of nurses? This is where it becomes tricky. "nurses's"? No. That's wrong.
The correct way to say it is "nurses'" You say nurses (the plural form) and then attach an apostrophe at the end to indicate something that belongs to them.
Eg., I visited the hospital today to observe nurses' duties. You are observing the duties that belong to a bunch of nurses.
Peculiar word - Ends with s
OK. Enough with the nurses. Let's take another example. A person's name? This will be interesting.
What name shall we consider? OK. I had to do some research about this and I finally decided to choose one of my favourite characters -
Agnes (from the fantastic
Despicable Me).
We know she loves unicorns (again, no apostrophe. She loves multiple unicorn, not something that belongs to a certain unicorn).
The plural form of proper nouns are tricky. For the sake of this article, let's say the plural form of Agnes can be Agneses.
Eg., I visited Dr. Dru's lab today and found many Agneses; perhaps he has a cloning machine now(plot for Despicable Me 3, anyone?).
Next, something that belongs to Agnes. How about that unicorn toy?
Eg., Agnes's unicorn is really fluffy.
Remember how earlier I told you you can't use "nurses's"? Yes. In that case, the apostrophe between two s is wrong. But here, it is correct (English is funny that way). "Agnes's" indicates something that belongs to Agnes.
Finally, something that belongs to a bunch of Agnes. You say, "Agneses'"
It's the same with "nurses'". Whenever you have a plural that ends with s, you only add the apostrophe at the end. No need to follow with an 's'.
Eg., The Agneses' hair were all of different colour (Imagine an Agnes with yellow hair!)
Peculiar word - Plural doesn't end with s
Doesn't matter how many times you say this, it isn't enough - English is a funny language. Mr. Amitabh Bacchan explains it in
Namak Halaal.
OK. The word 'ox' is one that we can use as an example for this.
Plural form of ox is oxen.
Eg., I saw a lot of oxen grazing in the meadow.
Something that belongs to a single ox - ox's. Simple, right?
Eg., One of the ox's had a Mickey Mouse shaped scar on its stomach.
OK. Now for the peculiar case. Something that belongs to a bunch of ox - oxen's. That's right! Even though it's a plural, you still attach an apostrophe followed by 's'.
Eg., All the oxen's colour was brown, which seemed really strange.
Another good example for this would be - person.
Plural - people.
Belonging to a person - person's
Belonging toe a bunch of person - people's
Note: "peoples" and "persons" are not words.
Well, that's that. That's the proper way of using the apostrophe when it comes to plurals and possession. I think I have covered all the cases.
Contractions
Now, moving on to the next use of apostrophe - contractions.
Contractions are a lazy person's way of writing. Instead of using full words, sometimes it becomes important to contract the word to a shorter form. While doing this, the apostrophe comes into picture.
Most common examples:
"can not" becomes "can't"
"will not" becomes "won't"
"shall not" becomes "shan't"
I have seen people make mistakes here! Some write "could not" as "could'nt"! The correct way is "couldn't".
you're vs. your
you're is a contraction of "you are". "your" indicates possession.
Eg., You're a beautiful girl. Your eyes really stand out. (I know it's cheesy. Deal with it)
it's vs. its
Same case as above. it's is a contraction of "it is". "its" indicates possession.
Eg., It's a nice weather outside. We should take pictures of the park and its surroundings.
let's vs. lets
let's is a contraction of "let us". "lets" is a variant of the word "let".
Eg., Let's step outside. I hear the guard lets early comers take pictures with him.
Miscellaneous example
Here, I would like to mention one very common mistake that people do. Sometimes, the apostrophe is used to indicate possession just to avoid confusion.
Eg., Do's and Don'ts. Explain to me why the apostrophe is used in the first and not in the second. You can't. It's wrong.
If one were to write "Dos and Don'ts", the "Dos" would really be confusing.
The trick here is to use punctuation. Just write the word causing confusion in capitals. "DOs and Don'ts". There you go. Now it's plain and clear.
There are many other such examples where the apostrophe form of a word indicates something entirely different.
I hope this article was of use to you and you will stop abusing the apostrophe in future. Off late, it has been a practice with the Oxford dictionary to include any fad as a legitimate word in the English dictionary. I hope years from now, this abuse of apostrophe isn't so common that Oxford is forced to declare that it's the right way to use the apostrophe!
Language is an art, not science. There is no algorithm. Nothing is concrete. Everything is at your disposal. That is why different words mean the same, differently spelled words are pronounced the same, words spelled the same are pronounced differently.
