3. Apostrophes

The rules governing the use of apostrophes are pretty simple. The apostrophe is used to denote possessiveness (as in ‘John’s plan’ ) or the loss of letters when two words are contracted into one (as in don’t). The only exception to this rule is ‘it’, which does not have an apostrophe in its possessive form (‘its’) so that it can be distinguished from the contraction of ‘it is’. Nevertheless, for most people the use of the apostrophe seems about as difficult to grasp as the offside rule in soccer. Go to any high street (and many websites too, for that matter) and you will spot apostrophes being used willy-nilly just about anywhere, but particularly in plural forms.

These so-called grocers’ apostrophes (named because the illiteracy of traders seems to be the main driving force behind them) lead to abominations like potato’s instead of potatoes and are now so entrenched in common usage that there are even moves to accept them into the formal written language. A more insidious version of the problem occurs with plurals of acronyms: CD’s is now so widely used as the plural for compact discs that most ordinary people would probably have to think twice before guessing the correct form.

The its/it’s rule is also often a common source of problems for novice writers, as is the use of apostrophes in words ending in ‘s’. In the latter case, the best rule is simply to follow the spoken sound, as in James’s plan and two years’ worth. Generally, though:

• Try to avoid contractions where possible, to avoid confusion (exceptions are in direct quotes or where you need to save space, such as in website copy).
• Know the rules governing the use of apostrophes and the its/it’s rule in particular.
• Beware that spell checkers will not necessarily pick up on apostrophe mistakes.