Writer Wednesday: Apostrophe s

Is there anything more annoying than the -‘s? (Well, other than tornadoes.) When do you use -‘s and when do you use -ies? Even worse, what about -ies’?

It all comes down to possessive or plural.

–If something is being owned, it’s -‘s: The family’s car. (The family owns the car.)

–If something is more than one, it’s -ies: The families are vacationing. (More than one family.)

–If both: The families’ cars. (More than one family, and they own the cars.)

So, ask yourself the question: Does anyone own anything? If not, no apostrophe.

About alisaacarter

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3 Responses to Writer Wednesday: Apostrophe s

  1. Okay I have question…actually happened to a fellow writer of mine…he had a character named IT in his story. And he was trying to write the possessive form of it in a sentence and he couldn’t figure how to do that.. else it would look like it is. Is he screwed?

    • alisaacarter says:

      He is indeed screwed. All he can do is either rewrite the sentence to something like “the car belonging to It” or confuse the hell out of everyone with It’s. Or rename the character…

      • Lol….maybe we can invent a new English rule Like with the name IT in parentheses like this (IT)’s ….who knows it could catch on…yeah right….thanks

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