Written by Lilian Ndongmo. ESL Teacher

In a previous post, I  explained the basics of the apostrophe and how you can use it in a sentence. To review your knowledge of basic  apostrophe usage, click here.

How and where would you place the apostrophe if your sentence had one of the following:

1. Nouns indicating joint possession
2. Nouns indicating separate possession
3. Contractions

Here’s what you can do to get your sentence right.

1. Nouns indicating joint possession

Joint possession is used to indicate that two separate nouns own or possess the same thing.

For example: The house of Peter and his wife, Jane.

This means that two people, Peter and Jane, own one house together. In other words, the house belongs to both Peter and Jane.

To indicate joint possession, add ‘s to the last word or noun only.

Therefore: The house of Peter and Jane becomes: Peter and Jane’s house.

2. Nouns indicating separate possession

Separate possession is used to indicate that two separate nouns own or possess separate things.

Example: The cats of Peter and Jane

Let’s imagine that there are two cats. This sentence indicates that Peter owns one cat and Jane owns the other cat.

To indicate separate possession, add ‘s to both nouns.

Therefore: The cats of Peter and Jane becomes: Peter’s and Jane’s cats.

3. Contractions

The apostrophe is also used to reduce the number of words or letters of a word without changing the meaning of the word(s).

Examples:

It is                         It’s

It is                         It has

You are                 You’re

Cannot                 Can’t

I would                 I’d

Who is                  Who’s

Who has              Who’s

 You can also use the apostrophe for contractions of words used in an informal context such as:

Come on              C’mon

You all                   Y’all

Little                      L’il

Because               ‘Cause or ‘Cos