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The apostrophe (1)
Despite its size, the apostrophe is just
as important as any other character used in
the English language. Possession
This little label is added to a word to denote
that something belongs to someone or something,
provided the possessor is singular.
As you may have guessed, the change in place
of the apostrophe means we are now dealing with
plural possessors.
However, as we know, there are some irregular
plurals in English. For these, we revert to
using the initial 's label, as these words do
not themselves end naturally in an s.
For singular nouns already ending in an s, as is often the case with people's names, there is some grey area. Both James's wife and James' wife are correct. According to the rule, as James is only one person, we would use the former. The latter, however, is considered to be simpler and clearer.
This frequently used example brings both functions of the apostrophe into play. The possessive pronouns mine, yours, hers, his, ours, theirs, whose and its never take an apostrophe. Therefore we write, "the dog had found its bone". When written with an apostrophe, it's is the contracted form of it is. Whenever tempted to use the apostrophe, be sure you do want to say it is, which is evidently not the case here. These are the essential rules for the use of
the apostrophe in possessive cases. Some other
general tips will help in areas of confusion.
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