Now that the main exam season is well underway, I thought that it was a good time to share my thoughts on The Unnecessary Apostrophe. If you are a student sitting exams right now, or you are a parent, teacher or friend helping young people prepare for their exams, then this post is for you!
Those of you who know me will know that unnecessary apostrophes follow me everywhere I go. I have a very bad case of apostrophobia. Ugh, they just go through me. And they’re everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, I do love a beautiful, correctly placed apostrophe. In fact, I’m a big fan of punctuation. But when innocent apostrophes are forced into places where they don’t belong, it sends shivers down my spine.
So, when you’re preparing for your exams, please remember that apostrophes are for two purposes only: firstly, to indicate missing letters in contractions such as, don’t, you’re and so on. Secondly, apostrophes are used to show possession, that something belongs to someone or something as in, Sharon’s pen or the school’s policy.
Here’s where it goes wrong: if you are talking about your GCSEs, don’t write GCSE’s. It’s the same with DVDs, MOTs and so on.
Plurals that involve numbers also do not require an apostrophe. For example, if you’re writing about 1930s America, don’t write 1930’s. Similarly, write over 18s not over 18’s.
This one will cook your head a bit (particularly in light of my point about apostrophes showing possession). If you are writing about something belonging to it, then write its (no apostrophe). For example, if you are writing about the final scene in a play, you should write, its final scene is poignant. (Obviously I’m talking about An Inspector Calls – see my review of the play here https://talkingyorkie.wales/?p=137 ). If you’re not sure whether to use its or it’s then do the following: in your head, try the sentence with it is and it has. If neither of these sounds right, then the word you are looking for is probably its (without an apostrophe).
If you are sitting WJEC English Language, this knowledge could also prove to be very useful for the proofreading task in your Unit 2 exam on 23rd May. For your other exams, and indeed for your future, it will also be more impressive if you can demonstrate that you know how to use punctuation correctly. The pictures (or should that be picture’s?) below are just two examples of the unnecessary apostrophes that follow me around. After reading this blog, you too might be infected by apostrophobia, but I suppose there are worse things to catch.
Have a great day 😊
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