Possessives, or Life with Apostrophes

None of us wants a romantic hero or heroine who is too possessive, but possessives in language are important. They show that a person, persons, a thing, or things own whatever follows. It is Gretchen’s cats or writers’ messages or the book’s meaning.

And apostrophes help tell readers about that ownership. My late Aunt Janee, who taught high school English for decades, liked to explain that apostrophes for possessives are like the word “of.” It is the cats of Gretchen, the messages of writers, or the meaning of the book.

Americans have a love-hate relationship with apostrophes. They either don’t want to use them when they should or do use them when they shouldn’t.

Here are the basics of apostrophe use: If a singular thing owns the thing after it, use apostrophe + s. If a plural thing owns the thing that follows, make the first word plural by adding an s and then add just add an apostrophe. Here are some examples:

·        The kitten’s nook (one kitten with one nook)

·        The kittens’ nook (more than one kitten with one nook)

Of course, it’s never that clear cut. What if your first person or thing ends in an s, such as Charles? Some style books tell you to just add the apostrophe without the s: Charles’ hat. However, for consistency, other style books do the whole apostrophe + s thing: Charles’s hat. I fall into the latter camp as I’m a glutton for consistency (and mixed metaphors!). 😊

And what happens when you have a plural word that does not end in s, such as children? Eschewing consistency (but making sense from a possessive point of view), it gets the apostrophe + s: children’s books.

Pet peeve warning (pun intended with all the kitten imagery): Do not use an apostrophe to mean a plural, and do not use an apostrophe to show ownership of a pronoun. For example, these are incorrect:

·        Sunday’s are my favorite days.

·        The Brooks’ (or the Brooks’s) like to travel.

·        She got four A’s when she counted by 5’s.

·        The dog chased it’s tail.

·        That story is her’s to tell.

If your ownership noun isn’t followed by another noun, it probably isn’t possessive and probably doesn’t need an apostrophe. See that second bullet above? The members of my family are the Brookses. The house that we own is the Brookses’ house.

Of course, there are exceptions, such as “do’s and don’ts” and “yesses and no’s.” That’s when clarity trumps consistency.

Apostrophes in contractions are a different story all together. We’ll cover that another time. For now, please tell me in my blog what you think about apostrophes and possessives. And, if you’ve read and liked any of my books and haven’t yet written a review on Amazon or Goodreads, please, please, please do so. Have fun and feel free to use a possessive: “Brooks’s book does ABC.” If you’re reading this blog and haven’t signed up for my newsletter, please do so on the home page of this Web site.