Tiefling's rules of the apostrophe
1
1) No possessive
pronoun contains an apostrophe.
2) All other possessives do contain apostrophes.
3) All
contractions not used as words in their own right contain apostrophes, in place of the
excised
letters.
4) Plurals only contain apostrophes if they are possessives.
5) In possessives, the apostrophe goes
before the s if the root does
not end in s itself, and
after the s if it
does.
Apologies for duplication - I like my clarification best, but the more the merrier.
1 Pronounced 'Apo-strofe' for humorous effect.
Some rules for apostrophe use:
First,
do not use apostrophes in plurals, unless you intend to show
possession, in which case you would use it at the end. "I've got lots of problem's" is
grammatically incorrect. There's no contraction or possesion here, so no apostrophe.
Second,
do not use an apostrophe when you are showing possession using a gender-neutral pronoun (e.g. "it"). It is not correct to say "That stupid bird left it's feathers all over the cage floor." This spelling ("it's") is only acceptable as a contraction of the words "it" and "is". This is probably the most difficult rule to remember, unless you know why.
And finally,
never use an apostrophe to form a verb in the present-tense singular. Many times I have read "Jimmy love's Janey", and unless Janey is the sole property of Jimmy love, then this is just another example of poor
grammar. But then many people today don't understand the
parts of speech either.
Thank's for you're time!