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The Apostrophe
Apostrophes are more commonly omitted than misused. Perhaps because we
do not speak with apostrophes, many people neglect to use them in writing.
Another reason for neglect and sometimes error, particularly with plural
possessives, may be confusion over where to put the apostrophe and when
to add an s. Apostrophes are used to form possessives and contractions.
Apostrophes and Possessives
Here are a few simple rules for using the apostrophe to show possession.
Bishop's score mounted steadily,
unhampered by the need for corroborative evidence.
What occurred during that famous dawn raid is anyone's
guess.
Cpl Collins's memo was a
detailed brief of the meeting.
Major Munsch stared hungrily at the Mess's
lunch menu.
Traditional practice avoids the 's when forming possessives for certain
classical and biblical names that end in s: Jesus' disciples, Moses'
rod, Achilles' shield, Ulysses' adventures.
Moreover, there is no agreement among editors and grammarians on how
to show possession for a proper noun—a
name—ending with a letter that is
sometimes given an s sound—an x or
z. Typically, when speaking we do not pronounce the possessive s in
names that end with an s sound. Editorial practice in the Canadian Military
Journal is to use 's to indicate possession for such proper names.
Karl von Clausewitz's 1832 treatise,
On War, pioneered modern strategic analysis.
The soldiers' cameraderie in the
trenches of the First World War is a much-celebrated part of Canadian
military history.
Our regiment was given only two weeks'
notice of the deployment date.
- Add 's to plural nouns that do not
end in s
A small set of English words, many derived from Latin, have plural
forms that do not end in s. The most common of these are
media, data, criteria, phenomena, men, women, children, mice,
and sheep. To form possessives of these plural nouns,
add 's.
It is vital that the military understand and respect
the media's role as the principal conduit of information
to the Canadian people.
Targeting Iraq's and Afghanistan's
industrial capabilities is lawful only to the extent that those capabilities
are a valid military objective and the attack meets the requirements
of proportionality.
[Each country has different "industrial capabilities," so
each requires an 's.]
- Add 's to only the last word
when two or more words show joint possession
When they both possess the same thing, closely linked nouns are considered
a single unit when forming a possessive, as in the title of the popular
adolescent fantasy film, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
General Grant and General Lee's
mutual dislike was well known in political circles.
Common Apostrophe errors
Certain words, such as possessive pronouns, are already in
possessive form without the aid of an apostrophe. Never use their's,
our's, your's, or her's. These words do not
exist.
| Help!
If you have a problem recognizing when and how to use an apostrophe
to show possession, try this simple test. Reword the sentence
with the suspect possessive using the word of to show
that something belongs to somebody or something. You'll need to
reorder some of the words to accomplish this. If you can add an
of phrase without affecting the meaning of the sentence,
then the object of the of phrase needs to have an apostrophe in
the original sentence.
The soldiers rucksack
fell off the back of the truck.
(Do you need an apostrophe here?)
The rucksack of
the soldier fell off the back of the truck.
(The of test works, so indeed you do.)
The soldier's rucksack
fell off the back of the truck. |
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