The apostrophe, while not considered part of the English alphabet, is used to contract, or shorten, English phrases. A few pairs of words, such as "its" (belonging to "it") and "it's" ("it is" or "it has"), "were" (plural of "was") and "we're" (we are), and "shed" (to get rid of) and "she'd" ("she would" or "she had") are distinguished in writing only by having or not having an apostrophe. The apostrophe also distinguishes the possessive endings "-'s" and "-s'" from the common plural ending "-s", a practice that began in the 18th century; before, all three endings were written "-s", which could lead to confusion (as in, "the Apostles words").