If punctuation marks had personalities, the apostrophe would be the fussy old uncle at a family gathering: always around, often misunderstood, and the subject of many heated debates and the collective rolling of eyes.
Because on his good days, his presence adds clarity, precision, and elegance to the occasion. He’s good company in other words. But, on his not so good days-well, they’ll be the ones when he attends your daughter’s wedding wearing white socks with sandals…
…everyone still notices him, but not in a good way.
Let’s call him Uncle Apostrophe.
The apostrophe arrived in English by way of the French in the sixteenth century, where it had a straightforward role: showing missing letters.
That’s why we write ‘don’t’ instead of ‘do not’ and ‘it’s’ instead of ‘it is’.
Over time, however, the little mark was asked to do more, expanding its duties to show ownership-Ed’s book, the cat’s box, the company’s future.
Two jobs, then, both useful but very different, and therein lies the confusion.
The first job is simple enough: contractions.
We rely on the apostrophe to show us what’s missing-‘you’re’ for ‘you are’, ‘don’t’ for ‘do not’.
The second job is possession.
One teacher has a desk, so it’s the teacher’s desk. Several teachers share a staffroom, so it’s the teachers’ staffroom.
Note the difference? Subtle. But oh-so-important.
The problems come when the apostrophe is pressed into service where it doesn’t belong.
One of the most common mistakes is trying to use it to make plurals. That’s why you still see signs for ‘banana’s’ or ‘DVD’s’ in markets and shops up and down the land, the classic so-called ‘greengrocer’s apostrophe’.
Adding an apostrophe to make something plural is not just wrong, it’s unnecessary. Another well-worn trap is the confusion between ‘it’s’ and ‘its’. The former is always short for ‘it is’ or ‘it has’.
The latter means belonging to it.
Oddly, possession here doesn’t need an apostrophe at all, one of those quirks of English that gives proof to the saying that our language doesn’t so much have rules as habits.
The misuse of the apostrophe is not confined to the high street.
Even big organisations have come unstuck. In 2012, the bookseller Waterstone’s dropped its apostrophe completely and became simply Waterstones. The reason, they said, was simplicity in the digital age. But their decision drew fierce criticism, not least from those who felt an essential piece of bookish correctness had been quietly abandoned. It was a reminder, if nothing else, that people really do care about this tiny, curly mark.
Remember the core rule with regard to the apostrophe-it denotes possession.
Hence Sainsbury’s is the shop belonging to the Sainsbury family and King’s Lynn is the town belonging to (or once granted to) the king.
There is the apostrophe doing its classic job: marking ownership.
Whereas if someone writes down ‘Apple’s for sale’, the use of the apostrophe here suggests the apples own something, when in fact the sign just means there are apples available.
It should simply be ‘Apples for sale’.
Likewise ‘Happy Birthday from the Smith’s - the apostrophe wrongly implies possession, that the birthday belongs to the Smith.
When it’s a family name in the plural, no apostrophe is needed, so it should be written as ‘from the Smiths’.
The truth is, the apostrophe isn’t that complicated.
It has just two jobs. It helps us say what we mean. Most of the time, it works away without fuss or fanfare, a silent helper in our sentences. But when it’s misused, it sticks out like a sore thumb, demanding attention and making the writer look careless.
So spare a thought for the humble apostrophe. It doesn’t ask for much-just to be understood.
