Apostrophes

Singular words ending in s.

•Optus’ new plan has been successful.

•Optus’s new plan has been successful.

•It can also show that a letter is missing.

•She’s trying hard to understand what’s going on.

Apostrophes

Possessive its – no apostrophe!

My your his her its our their

The ambulance rushed past, its sirens ringing.

It’s - for this word the apostrophe always means some letters are missing –

i.e. it is or it has

Apostrophes

Apostrophes

Apostrophes

Apostrophes

Punctuation quiz

•Look at the sentences 1-4 on the handout.

•Which of them do you think use punctuation correctly?

Correct =

Not correct = x

Question 1

•Adriana’s car broke down last week, but the mechanics’ couldn’t fix it.

•Wrong!

•No apostrophe needed in ‘mechanics’. Nothing belongs to them.

•Correct

•Adriana’s car broke down last week, but the mechanics couldn’t fix it.

Question 2

• I can’t stand my sisters’ boyfriend. Wrong!

•Apostrophe before the ‘s’ in sisters (unless they share the same boyfriend…)

Correct:

• I can’t stand my sister’s boyfriend.