Writing It Right: The Versatile Apostrophe
by Carolynn Carey
In an article titled “Is That Apostrophe Correct? Who’s to Say?” I discussed using the apostrophe for contractions and for possessives. But the apostrophe has many additional responsibilities.
For example, as you know, you can omit parts of dates and replace the omissions with an apostrophe. Most of us speak of graduating with the Class of ’84 (or whatever), in which case everyone understands that the apostrophe replaces “19”. Or instead it may replace “20” if we speak of the Class of ’08.
The apostrophe also replaces letters in words. Its most prevalent use, no doubt, is with contractions. The most common of the contractions is probably “it’s” and a common error involves carelessly writing “it’s” as a possessive when we all know that “it’s” is a contraction.
Writers may use the apostrophe to indicate the omission of letters in dialect, such as ‘ave for have or goin’ for going. Note that the computer, being unaware that I was writing dialect, has my curly quote going in the wrong direction in the previous sentence when I wrote ‘ave. The computer cannot be expected to know when you are writing dialect and will need your help. Thus, if you insist on writing dialect (which I hope you’ll do sparingly), learn the keystrokes necessary to write ’ave instead of ‘ave.
Other chores the apostrophe takes on include making letters and words plural, as in “Watch your p’s and q’s” or “Here’s a list of do’s and don’t’s.” Wow! See what all the tiny apostrophe can do?
Fortunately, for the poor, overworked apostrophe, one chore has been lifted from its shoulders in recent years. No longer is an apostrophe required when years and abbreviations are made plural. Instead of 1990’s and Ph.D.’s, you may write 1990s and Ph.D.s.
Still, for such a small thing, the apostrophe does a tremendous amount of work. So mind your p’s and q’s, remember my do’s and don’t’s, and get that apostrophe right. It’s the least you can do.
Copyright © Carolynn Carey.
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