The Use of Apostrophes In English

The apostrophe is yet another punctuation mark that’s so underrated, yet so important. The place where the apostrophe is placed completely changes the meaning of the entire sentence! Yet, I have found many a time that this extremely important punctuation mark has been used where it’s not required and sometimes in places where it’s completely wrong.

Well, let’s take a couple of examples. Let’s see if you can figure out the different meaning of each sentence given below:

1. These dolls are my cousins.
2. These dolls are my cousin’s.
3. These dolls are my cousins’.

Well, have you thought through your answer? I’ll write down the meanings of these statements below:

1. The first sentence means that the dolls are a part of your family as they are your cousins.
2. The second sentence means that the dolls belong to your cousin (singular– only one cousin). Here the apostrophe shows possession or in other words ownership or belonging.
3. In the last sentence, the apostrophe again shows possession, but it means that the dolls belong to many of your cousins (plural– more than one cousin).

Amazing, right? Just a little symbol with so much power to change the entire meaning of a sentence!

Questions:

• How many of you were able to get the correct meaning of the three sentences above?
• Which ones did you get wrong?
• What was the mistake you made?
• Did notice this-

Comment below!

So, keeping the importance of apostrophes in mind, I am uploading two videos telling you about the different uses of apostrophes in English.

Video 1: Use of apostrophe to show possession of one or more than one thing or person.

• There are a couple of apostrophes written even on the board given behind the monsters. Were you able to understand their meaning?

Video 2: Shows the use of apostrophe as contractions (shortened words or phrases).

Questions:

• Did you notice the General himself used an apostrophe at the end of the video? Which one was it?

Comment below!

P.S. Did you notice how many contractions I’ve used while writing the content? So next time you think about using an apostrophe incorrectly or somewhere it’s not needed, remember, since the apostrophes are such a menace, the Apostrophe Man will have to come and take it to its right place. (That’s why I too didn’t use the apostrophe in the second ‘its’, because it’s not a contraction.)

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