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Is it a flying comma,
or a quotation mark chopped in half?
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Either way, you may already be well versed
in how to use the apostrophe,
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but here's a quick refresher on its usage.
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The apostrophe can be used in three ways:
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to mark posession,
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to mark contraction,
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to mark the plural of single letters.
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Most of the time, if you see an apostrophe
hovering helpfully near a word,
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it's trying to mark possession
or contraction.
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First, let's look at how the apostrophe
marks possession.
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As you can see, the placement
of this punctuation mark
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can really change
the meaning of a sentence.
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"Those robots in
the sand are my sister's."
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"Those robots in
the sand are my sisters'."
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"Those robots in the sand are my sisters."
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When showing possession, the apostrophe
belongs next to the noun
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that owns or possesses something.
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The noun can be singular or plural.
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Proper nouns work, too.
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So if Lucy needs to get her robots
under control before they cause mayhem,
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those dangerous creatures
would be "Lucy's robots".
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But what if Lucy was Lucas?
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Would we write "Lucas' robots"
or "Lucas's robots"?
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And what if Lucas gave his robots
to the Robinsons family?
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Would it be "The Robinsons' robots,"
or "The Robinsons's robots"?
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The truth is, even grammar nerds
disagree on the right thing to do.
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The use of 's after a proper noun
ending in s is a style issue,
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not a hard and fast grammar rule.
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It's a conundrum
without a simple answer.
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Professional writers solve this problem
by learning what's considered correct
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for a publication, and doing that.
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The important thing is to pick one style
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and stick with it
throughout a piece of writing.
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One more wrinkle.
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Certain pronouns already
have possession built in
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and don't need an apostrophe.
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Remembering that will help you avoid one
of the trickiest snags in English grammar:
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Its vs. it's.
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"It's" only take an apostrophe when it's
a contraction for "it is" of "it has."
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If you can replace "it's" with
one of those two phrases,
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use the apostrophe.
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If you're showing possession,
leave it out.
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Otherwise, contractions
are pretty straightforward.
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The apostrophe stands in
for missing letters,
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and lets common phrases
squash into a single word.
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In rare cases, you can have
a double contraction,
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though those generally
aren't accepted in writing,
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with the exception of dialogue.
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So it's possessive,
it's often followed by s's,
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and it's sometimes tricky
when it comes to its usage.
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It's the apostrophe.
Margarida Ferreira
Line 0:49 - Those robots in the sand are my sister's
Line 0:53 - Those robots in the sand are my sisters' (Final apostrophe is missing)