WAS REMARKING recently how one of my pet peeves is when people don’t know the difference between its and it’s. Bad spelling and grammar in general are annoying, but when people mix up its and it’s, especially so. And in this age of social media everything, it seems as if we’re confronted with poor spelling and grammar constantly, making me wonder if it’s merely carelessness or a general decline.
Recently, on Instagram, Clare Waight Keller, the Artistic Director of Givenchy, had written on a post: “The dress that became the finale at my #hautecouture @givenchyofficial show Une Lettre d’Amour ? Typically I don’t finish my shows with a bride, normally I prefer to end with colour or black, but this dress captured everything about the story of the collection – a love letter to Sissinghurst and it’s extraordinary owner/gardener Vita Sackville-West and my own personal love letter to Hubert de Givenchy…” (@clarewaightkeller)
Was stunned, of course, that someone at her level could have made such an error, or worse, perhaps not actually know the difference between it’s and its? Hopefully it was just a typo. The word she used, it’s, is the contracted form of it is or it has. What Keller should have written was its, the possessive form of it, meaning ‘of it’, similar to words like his and hers, neither of which needs an apostrophe.
At about the same time, on another Instagram post from a very talented interior designer in our feed was a beautiful photo of the designer’s home, with the caption about “Sunday’s” and how he liked to spend them. What should have written was Sundays, plural. An example of how the word Sunday’s, with an apostrophe should be used would be, “Sunday’s the day that I like most” whereby the apostrophe indicates the missing letter “i” (Sunday is). Two more examples: Sundays are my favourite day. Are you watching Sunday’s game?
Because the errors and confusion are so prevalent, in this article, we’ll have a look at the proper way to use apostrophes, focussing on: their use after dates and acronyms; apostrophes to indicate the possessive; to indicate missing letters; and how apostrophes are sometimes used to indicate the structure of unusual words.
To indicate the possessive
An apostrophe can be used to show that one thing belongs to, or is connected to something, and is known as a possessive apostrophe:
This is Roséline’s book. / This is Charles’s book. (Charles is a singular noun so, even though it already ends in an “s”, you need to add an apostrophe and another “s” to show that the book belongs to Charles.)
This book is Michael’s. / Where are the men’s books?
That is the dog’s bed. (Dog is a singular noun, so adding an apostrophe and “s” shows that the bed belongs to the dog.)
What is the people’s opinion?
One should always choose one’s words carefully. / It is everyone’s duty to protest. / It was no one’s fault.
One week’s notice. / Two weeks’ notice.
Mr and Mrs Ashcroft live here. / They are the Ashcrofts. / It’s the Aschcrofts’ house.
Mr and Mrs Jones live here. / They are the Joneses. / It’s Mrs Jones’s house. / It’s the Joneses’ house.
The brothers’ home was nice. (Brothers is a plural noun that ends in an “s” so you don’t need to add another “s” after the apostrophe. You can just add an apostrophe to show the home belongs to the brothers.)
The children’s toys were educational. (Children is a plural noun that doesn’t end with an “s”, so you need to add an apostrophe and “s” to show that the toys belong to the children.)
Personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) indicate the possessive by becoming a whole new word. These new words are already possessive, so they don’t need an apostrophe: my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs.
The house is yours.
The dog broke its toy.
She said the book was hers.
They claimed it was theirs, but really it was ours.
