The french language has no possessive and and a french person would say the meeting of last week. Since the 1980s, the thomases, both of whom have multiple phds, have sold old books and magazines at the fair on saturdays and sundays. Longmans grammar of spoken and written english divides the genitive into specifying genitives e. Grammar what is the difference between weeks, weeks and week s. One way to explain this is the phrase two weeks of vacation being contracted to two weeks vacation. Use an apostrophe to indicate possession with nouns a noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea.
His dads quirky grammar book was top of olivers christmas list. Apostrophes are used in phrases such as two days time and 12. Apostrophe meaning in the cambridge english dictionary. Aug 10, 2009 apostrophes may also be used, depending on style, to indicate the contraction of a number.
Use an apostrophe to indicate a noun is possessive. The apostrophe is seldom used to form a plural noun. The problem nearly always seems to stem from not understanding that the apostrophe has two very different and very important uses in english. Killer tips from the ruthless editor, kathleen watson, nonfiction book editor, numbers, percentages, professional, professional business book editing, use apostrophe. Using apostrophes in contractions free, printable apostrophe worksheet apostrophes grammar worksheets for class 4 using apostrophes in contractions free, printable apostrophe worksheet. Mignon fogarty is the founder of quick and dirty tips and the author of seven books on language, including the new york times bestseller grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing. We talked about this a little bit in our introduction to the apostrophe video. In sentence a, a weeks needs an apostrophe because the phrase means a week of. She is an inductee in the podcasting hall of fame, and the. With very few exceptions, apostrophes do not make nouns plural.
Sometimes, its called the grocers apostrophe because of how frequently it is spotted in grocery store advertisements 3 oranges for a dollar. She is an inductee in the podcasting hall of fame, and the show is a fivetime winner of best education podcast in the podcast awards. Dont get confused by the 2002 movie two weeks notice. Semicolons and colons quiz 1 the blue book of grammar and. Richard nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and english at georgia southern university and the author of several universitylevel grammar and composition textbooks. Admittedly, trouble arises with certain other kinds of nouns. The second grammer rule is about when to used a question mark. English grammar 101 additional punctuation, lesson 1. The apostrophe in contractions the most common use of apostrophes in english is for contractions, where a noun. Two weeks notice grammar girl quick and dirty tips.
Read on to discover all the apostrophe rules youll ever need to know. Such words can become confusing when they are made plural, then made possessive. The term possessive was introduced into the grammar lexicon by bishop robert lowth in 1762 in a short introduction to english grammar. At last, a book that tells you exactly where to stick your apostrophe david marsh simon griffins irreverent pocketsized guide to a tricky piece of punctuation is the perfect stocking filler. Possessive pronouns are already possessive, so they dont need an apostrophe. If the plural noun shows ownership, do add an apostrophe after the s for regular plurals. Indicate missing letters eg its for it is, arent for are not or indicate the. Weeks is the plural of week, so grammatically, it must. Apostrophe rules can be broken into four main categories.
Grammar what is the difference between weeks, weeks and. Grammar and writing tips from sarah townsend editorial. In fact, since the possessive apostrophe is really replacing the word of the book of sharon, youll rarely go wrong if you remember that an apostrophe almost always indicates that something has been dropped. Today well examine singular nouns that end in s, with lens, cactus, and series as examples. If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the faq by clicking the link above. Each entry starts with a simple explanation and basic examples before moving to reallife, entertaining examples. The correct notation is week s, the apostrophe signifying ownership of whatever follows ex. Six weeks vacation but six weeks pregnant margie wakeman wells february 16, 20 general leave a comment when words showing measurement, value, distance, amount are used with an s on the end and they are in front of a noun, use an apostrophe s for singular and just an apostrophe for plural. The normal rule when forming a plural noun is to add an s to the end. The first grammar rule in the book is how to write a proper sentence.
Feel free to use this service as often as you would like for both personal and business purposes. Youll need to print off the worksheet to do the exercises. The problem starts with our understanding of what we use the apostrophe for and what possession is. See rules 1b and 1c of apostrophes for more discussion. To show singular possession, use the apostrophe and then the s. At last, a book that tells you exactly where to stick your. Dec 04, 2015 at last, a book that tells you exactly where to stick your apostrophe david marsh simon griffins irreverent pocketsized guide to a tricky piece of punctuation is the perfect stocking filler. Were betting youll love this contraction worksheet, who wouldnt. Marlene asked whether she should write one years time or oneyears time. An apostrophe is a mark of punctuation used to identify a noun in the possessive case or indicate the omission of one or more letters from a word. Many common nouns end in the letter s lens, cactus, bus, etc. Apostrophes may also be used, depending on style, to indicate the contraction of a number. Buy our book smashing grammar 2019 written by the founder of grammar monster, smashing grammar includes a glossary of grammar essentials from apostrophes to zeugma and a chapter on easily confused words from affecteffect to whetherif. Dont get caught out by the apostrophe in time expressions.
We will deal with some of those problems in weeks to come. Keep a copy of this book nearby when youre writing and refer to it if youre unsure about usage. Paige so today, were gonna talk about apostrophes and plurals. In the past, apostrophes were used to make letters, numbers, abbreviations, and words used as words plural. In this book, the punctuation marks all take jobs from the director. Some possessive pronouns are my, your, his, her, its, our, and their. To show possession with a singular noun, add an apostrophe plus the letter s.
Aug 16, 20 if you cant use an apostrophe, you dont know your shit. Mar 29, 2012 sometimes it comes up as a question about where or whether to use an apostrophe. Apostrophes with names ending in s, ch, or z grammar and. When the possessor is an inanimate object rather than a living thing, the apostrophe is not used and the word order is changed. Weeks is a plural possessive is weeks with the apostrophe after the s. If you cant use an apostrophe, you dont know your shit. To show singular possession of a name ending in s or z, some writers add just an apostrophe. An apostrophe is used in time and money references in constructions such as one hours respite, two weeks holiday, a dollars worth, five pounds worth, one miles drive from here. The importance of when to use an apostrophe with numbers. Nov 04, 2010 the punctuation mark is called apostrophe. Sometimes to indicate the structure of unusual words. One way to explain this is the phrase two weeks of vacation being contracted to two weeks vacation the vacation is. Apostrophes with words ending in s the blue book of. Some writers and editors add only an apostrophe to all nouns ending in s.
This is covered obliquely in the possessives and sibilants post, but its worth addressing directly for greater clarity. Apostrophes can be used in time expressions also called temporal expressions like a days pay and two weeks notice. The third grammer rule in the book are the letter i, names of people, pets, specific places, days of the weeks, days of the months and holidays always starts with a capital letter. The blue book of grammar and punctuation is a fantastic book. The correct way to give possession to time and money is with an apostrophe. Now, whether ms truss is the final authority or not, i do not know, but my mother was extremely hot on punctuation and used to speak to me at greath length about it and so i follow her example. Since the 1980 s, the thomas s, both of whom have multiple phd s, have sold old book s and magazine s at the fair on saturday s and. Where will be the apostrophe three weeks pay or three. The backpack of the boy his backpack plural numbers, letters, and abbreviations. When hyphenated words or names of organizations, companies, or individuals are used to show joint possession, only the last word takes s or an apostrophe. Jan 28, 2020 author of the original blue book of grammar and punctuation. Semicolons and colons quiz 1 from the blue book of grammar and punctuation. And there are a few who add only an apostrophe to all nouns ending in showever, this method is relatively rare, and not recommended here. If there are more than one errors, separate corrected words with a space and a hyphen as in the examples.
Apostrophe english grammar today a reference to written and spoken english grammar and usage cambridge dictionary. The big question with these is where to put the apostrophe. This is a very, very rare case, where we use an apostrophe to show that something is plural, and it almost never happens, but we will explain when it. There are conflicting policies and theories about how to show possession when writing such nouns. The courts decision is expected in the time of a month, if it helps you to think like that. If the plural noun is not showing ownership, dont use an apostrophe. Apostrophe english grammar today cambridge dictionary.
Time expressions such as two weeks holiday or one week s notice need an apostrophe. Feb 27, 2015 everything you need to know about this little mark. In cases of individual possession, both nouns or pronouns take s or the apostrophe only. The apostrophe probably causes more grief than all of the other punctuation marks put together. Apostrophes the blue book of grammar and punctuation. For example, one hours respite means a respite of one hour exactly as the cats whiskers means the whiskers of the cat. Using an unnecessary apostrophe to form the plural of a noun is a very common mistake. How to avoid common apostrophe errors with pronouns dummies.