Apostrophes—Easy Punctuation
Apostrophes cause a lot of confusion for writers. People use them when they shouldn’t and don’t use them when they should, but they are an easy punctuation mark to learn.
Apostrophes are not that difficult to master. Dig into this article, and you’ll have proper usage committed to memory. If all else fails, you can always come back to this and brush up on it.
If you have read much, you may have noticed the many times apostrophe use is inconsistent.
A couple of words often seen differently are “farmer’s market” and “farmers’ market” and even “farmers market” with no apostrophe. I’ve included a screenshot that shows the results of a search using Google for “farmer’s market.”
Notice how “Heart of the City . . .” has it listed as “Farmers Market” and in another spot we see “San Francisco Farmers’ Market.”
Even worse is the treatment received by (arguably) the city’s most famous landmark: Fisherman’s Wharf. See the screenshots below.
Notice how in the two screenshots above, “Fisherman’s Wharf” is spelled with an apostrophe. In the bottom one, they have San Francisco in the possessive form also.
But in the two screenshots before that, you’ll see “Fishermans Wharf.”
You have likely seen other phrases, such as “teachers college,” “teachers lounge,” “homeowners association,” “plumbers union,” and such.
In all those cases, the words are not being used in a possessive sense but as descriptors, telling what kind of college/lounge, what kind of association, and what kind of union. It’s not a college owned by teachers but a college for teachers.
Different style guides treat this differently. AP says the following:
Do not add an apostrophe to a word ending in s when it is used primarily in a descriptive sense: citizens band radio, a Cincinnati Reds infielder, a teachers college, a teamsters request, a writers guide. AP also recommends: farmers market, plumbers strike, etc.
Chicago doesn’t agree and specifically recommends an apostrophe after farmers:
“farmers’ market.” This disagreement is one more reason why it’s wise to pick a guide and stick with it. Now we’ll look at a few more examples based on AP’s recommendations.
Descriptive Phrases
Do not add an apostrophe to phrases when they are in use primarily as a descriptor. It’s easier to show examples.
- I think CMOS is the best writers style guide.
- The New York Yankees outfielders are all big men.
- The coal miners demand regarding increased wages went ignored.
- His sister is six months pregnant.
In the sentences above, the words are not used as possessives as much as descriptors of what follows. It’s not the writers’ style guide, as in a style guide owned by a group of writers; it’s describing the kind of style guide—a writers guide as opposed to an editors guide.
The same logic applies to the Yankees. We’re not speaking of outfielders owned by the Yankees, we’re using Yankees to describe the outfielders, to distinguish them from the outfielders who play for the Red Sox or Astros or Dodgers.
And the same goes for the coal miners. We’re not speaking of a demand owned by the coal miners; we’re describing who made the demand.
It can sometimes be difficult to determine whether to use an apostrophe. One way to test is to see if you can substitute the words by, for, or of. (You probably have to rearrange the wording.) If by or for works better, do not use an apostrophe, but if of works better, use one. Look at the examples below, which use the sentences we already used.
- I think CMOS is the best writers style guide.
- The New York Yankees outfielders are all big men.
- The coal miners demand regarding increased wages went ignored.
- His sister is six months pregnant.
Now let’s do some substitution.
- I think CMOS is the best style guide for writers.
- The outfielders for the New York Yankees are all big men.
- The demand by coal miners regarding increased wages went ignored.
- His sister has been pregnant for six months.
As you can see, for and by were easily substituted when the sentences were reworded. You could have substituted of instead of for in the sentences dealing with the Yankees and the coal miners, but I don’t think the substitution sounds as good.
Let’s look at one more:
> The detective didn’t believe the witnesses’ eyesight, so he continued to question each of them. I used an apostrophe on this one because it seemed to be more of a possessive statement. Even though the witnesses eyesight could be descriptive, it also sounded as if it was possessive. When you do the substitution, it bears that out.
> The detective didn’t believe the eyesight of the witnesses, so he continued to question each of them. As you can see, of works fine, but for and by don’t work at all.
Plurals Not Ending in S
If a plural word does not end in s and is in the possessive form, an apostrophe s (’s) is required.
- Texas Children’s Hospital
- Young Men’s Christian Association
Possessive Phrases
In addition, some phrases may be difficult to determine also. One suggestion is to apply the same test we performed above with of, for, and by.
- A day’s wages.
- Three weeks’ vacation.
- Two months’ severance package.
- Four hours’ wait.
Those sayings could be reworded like this:
- A day of wages.
- Three weeks of vacation.
- Two months of severance pay.
- Four hours of waiting.
As you can see, of worked fine as a substitute in each example, whereas for or by would have been more difficult to make work (if at all).
Sometimes when a sentence contains both the possessive form of a noun or pronoun as well as a phrase using of to indicate possession, it can be confusing.
Look at the example below:
- We went to dinner last night with my sister and a friend of my brother’s. The apostrophe is needed after brother. Turn it around and see.
- We went to dinner last night with my sister and my brother’s friend. Some people may think—Why bother? Just say “a friend of my brother” and be done with it. But that wouldn’t be grammatically correct. Because we’re talking about brother in the possessive form, it needs to be possessive; in other words, it needs an apostrophe.
It may be easier to show if you substitute a pronoun for brother.
- You would say “He is a friend of mine (mine = possessive),” not “He is a friend of me.” While we’re speaking of of, let’s look at a few more scenarios where you may use of in place of an apostrophe. (That’s a lot of ofs, isn’t it?)
- We were driving across Arizona when the car’s engine overheated. Some people claim inanimate objects shouldn’t have a possessive form, as in the case above. But writing the “car’s engine” is similar to writing the “engine of the car” except it sounds better. You’re not claiming the engine is owned by the car, simply that the engine is part of the car.
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