Apostrophes are used in contractions. The apostrophe is meant to stand in for the missing “19.” It’s as simple as that. Apostrophes have two main uses in the English language: They stand in for something that's missing, and they can be used to make a word possessive. My favorite store’s jewelry is all on sale.

On the other hand, some style manuals and critics suggest that apostrophes should never be used for plurals, even for lower case letters. Its jewelry is on sale.

If you’re talking about the 1950s, you could drop the first two numbers and leave it as the ‘50s. Correct: Apostrophes are confusing. Apostrophe worksheets, punctuation worksheets, punctuation lesson plans.

APA style requires that one write: ps, ns, etc. Incorrect: We've had many happy Christmas's. It's also worth noting that (particularly in earlier years) writers would sometimes simply leave a space (i.e. In general, apostrophes … The apostrophe may be used for clarity with the plurals of single letters as in "minding your p's and q's" "A's and S's" Use of the apostrophe may be recommended only for lowercase letters.

In special cases, such as when forming a plural of a word that is not normally a noun, some writers add an apostrophe for clarity. We need to fix its legs. Those of us returning to studies after a long break, gap year, or after raising children, may not have thought about apostrophes in years. Plenty of practice with worksheets and with feedback regarding errors helps students use the apostrophe appropriately. A contraction is a word (or set of numbers) in which one or more letters (or numbers) have been omitted. We use apostrophes to write about Oprah’s new recommendation, J.K. Rowling’s new book, and Taylor Swift’s new song. One aspect of apostrophe use which seems to cause particular trouble is using apostrophes with times, such as in one year’s time or she has seven years’ experience.. Something I see quite often is confusion on when you need to use an apostrophe with times and when you don’t.

When apostrophes must not be used.

To use an apostrophe to create a contraction, place an apostrophe where the omitted letter(s) would go.

This is … This is called a possessive apostrophe.. Let's take a … Incorrect: Apostrophe's are confusing.

For example: We sell oranges and lemons.

Using the apostrophe can cause the best of us to quail. If you’re talking about the 1980s and you want to shorten it, you mean to mention the ’80s, not the 80’s. When abbreviating a year, remove the first two numbers and indicate the omission by using an apostrophe: 2009 becomes ’09 (not ‘09) 2010 becomes ’10 (not ‘10) 2525 becomes ’25 (if we're still alive) Notice I said apostrophe, not single opening quote. We have trained over 90,000 students from over 16,000 organizations on technologies such as Microsoft ASP.NET, Microsoft Office, Azure, Windows, Java, Adobe, Python, SQL, JavaScript, Angular and … Rules for Using Apostrophes. Use apostrophes to form contractions, where two or more words are combined to form one, with letters omitted.

It will cover using s' and 's, how to use apostrophes for indicate possesion and the words that are possessive without apostrophes, and using S's when talking about singular possessive, plural possessive, word contractions, using apostrophe s when a word ends in s, x or z, and using apostrophes with years.

Contractions are common in speaking and in informal writing. The classes of words that are most frequently affected by contractions are verbs and pronouns . Webucator provides instructor-led training to students throughout the US and Canada.

The use of apostrophes has always been less common, but it's been around at least a century (there, for example, the 1700's). The apostrophe shows this omission. Exercise : Apostrophes. We do feel you.

Apostrophes indicate possession or they will indicate words missing.

Folks, it's time to learn about apostrophes. People in their 70s need to renew their licence every three years. When apostrophes must not be used. Some writers add only an apostrophe to all the nouns that end with s, while others add an apostrophe + s to each proper noun.

The 1980s are a blur. MPs debating this today. In English it is used for three purposes: The marking of the omission of one or more letters (as in the contraction of do not to don't). Contractions Correct: We've had many happy Christmases.