The other job an apostrophe has is to show that a thing belongs to someone or something:
Ferdinand’s brain fell out. 🧠
For most nouns you simply add an apostrophe and an s to show that something belongs to someone or something:
Claudia’s phone was broken ☎
As in part 1 of the (very short) apostrophe series, this little punctuation mark actually works really hard for you. By using it, it is saving you an awful lot of words. How? Like this:
Luisa’s bread is utterly delicious 🍞**
Without an apostrophe you would have to write:
The bread of Luisa is utterly delicious 😋
and that’s just a massive waste of words.
❗ Keep it simple. ❗
When the thing or the person (the noun) already ends in an s, move the apostrophe to the end, like this:
Barnabas’ head exploded 🤯
Similarly, when the noun is plural, also move the apostrophe to the end:
The surfers’ club was cancelled 🏄♀️🏄♀️🏄♀️
Putting the apostrophe at the end means we know that we are referring to multiple surfers.
❗ The only time when you should not use an apostrophe to indicate possession is with “its.”
If you added an apostrophe, it would turn it into:
It’s
and we’ve already established that that means ‘it is’.
Use this as a reminder:
▪ His
▪Hers
▪Its
No apostrophe in any of those 3 possessives. 👎
What can I say? That’s the joy of the English language! Just when you think you’ve got the rule pinned down, a curveball is thrown. I didn’t write the rules, I just adhere to them. 🤷♀️
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**Luisa’s bread really is delicious. I wasn’t lying.
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