Apostrophe

• The marking of the omission of one or more letters, e.g., the contraction of "do not" to "don't"
• The marking of possessive case of nouns (as in "the eagle's feathers", "in one month's time", "the twins' coats")

It is also used in a few exceptional cases for the marking of plurals, e.g., "p's and q's" or Oakland A's. The same mark is used as a single quotation mark. It is also substituted informally for other marks – for example instead of the prime symbol to indicate the units of foot or minutes of arc.

The word apostrophe comes from the Greek ἡ ἀπόστροφος [προσῳδία] (hē apóstrophos [prosōidía], '[the accent of] turning away or elision'), through Latin and French.

Usage in English

Historical development

The apostrophe was first used by Pietro Bembo in his edition of De Aetna (1496). It was introduced into English in the 16th century in imitation of French practice.

French practice

Introduced by Geoffroy Tory (1529), the apostrophe was used in place of a vowel letter to indicate elision (as in l'heure in place of la heure). It was also frequently used in place of a final ⟨e⟩ (which was still pronounced at the time) when it was elided before a vowel, as in un' heure. Modern French orthography has restored the spelling une heure.

Early English practice

From the 16th century, following French practice, the apostrophe was used when a vowel letter was omitted either because of incidental elision ("I'm" for "I am") or because the letter no longer represented a sound ("lov'd" for "loved"). English spelling retained many inflections that were not pronounced as syllables, notably verb endings ("-est", "-eth", "-es", "-ed") and the noun ending "-es", which marked either plurals or possessives, also known as genitives . An apostrophe followed by ⟨s⟩ was often used to mark a plural; specifically, the Oxford Companion to the English Language notes:

There was formerly a respectable tradition (17th to 19th centuries) of using the apostrophe for noun plurals, especially in loanwords ending in a vowel (as in ... Comma's are used, Philip Luckcombe, 1771) and in the consonants s, z, ch, sh, (as in waltz's and cotillions, Washington Irving, 1804)...

Standardisation

The use of elision has continued to the present day, but significant changes have been made to the possessive and plural uses. By the 18th century, an apostrophe with the addition of an ⟨s⟩ was regularly used for all possessive singular forms, even when the letter ⟨e⟩ was not omitted (as in "the gate's height"). This was regarded as representing not the elision of the ⟨e⟩ in the "-e" or "-es" ending of the word being pluralized, but the elision of the ⟨e⟩ from the Old English genitive singular inflection "-es".

The plural genitive did not use the "-es" inflection, and since many plural forms already consisted of the "-s" or "-es" ending, using the apostrophe in place of the elisioned ⟨e⟩ could lead to singular and plural possessives of a given word having the exact same spelling. The solution was to use an apostrophe after the plural ⟨s⟩ (as in "girls' dresses"); however, this was not universally accepted until the mid-19th century. Plurals not ending in -s keep the -'s marker, such as "children's toys, the men's toilet", since there was no risk of ambiguity.

Possessive apostrophe

The apostrophe is used in English to indicate what is, for historical reasons, misleadingly called the possessive case in the English language. This case was called the genitive until the 18th century and, like the genitive case in other languages, expresses relationships other than possession. For example, in the expressions "the school's headmaster", "the men's department", and "tomorrow's weather", the school does not own/possess the headmaster, men do not own/possess the department, and tomorrow does not/will not own the weather. In the words of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage:

The argument is a case of fooling oneself with one's own terminology. After the 18th-century grammarians began to refer to the genitive case as the possessive case, grammarians and other commentators got it into their heads that the only use of the case was to show possession ... Simply changing the name of the genitive does not change or eliminate any of its multiple functions.

That dictionary also cites a study, which found that only 40% of the possessive forms were used to indicate actual possession. The modern spelling convention distinguishes possessive singular forms ("Bernadette's", "flower's", "glass's", "one's") from simple plural forms ("Bernadettes", "flowers", "glasses", "ones"), and both of those from possessive plural forms ("Bernadettes'", "flowers'", "glasses'", "ones'"). For example, the word "glass's" is the singular possessive form of the noun "glass". The plural form of "glass" is "glasses" and the plural possessive form is, therefore, "glasses'". One would therefore say "I drank the glass's contents" to indicate drinking from one glass, but "I drank the glasses' contents" after also drinking from another glass. For singular forms, the modern possessive or genitive inflection is a survival from certain genitive inflections in Old English, for which the apostrophe originally marked the loss of the old ⟨e⟩ (for example, lambes became lamb's). Its use for indicating plural "possessive" forms was not standard before the middle of the 19th century.

General principles for the possessive apostrophe

Summary of rules for most situations

• Possessive personal pronouns, serving as either noun-equivalents or adjective-equivalents, do not use an apostrophe, even when they end in ⟨s⟩. The complete list of those ending in the letter ⟨s⟩ or the corresponding sound or but not taking an apostrophe is "ours", "yours", "his", "hers", "its", "theirs", and "whose".
• Other pronouns, singular nouns not ending in ⟨s⟩, and plural nouns not ending in ⟨s⟩ all take "'s" in the possessive: e.g., "someone's", "a cat's toys", "women's".
• Plural nouns already ending in ⟨s⟩ take only an apostrophe after the pre-existing ⟨s⟩ to form the possessive: e.g., "three cats' toys".

Basic rule (singular nouns)

For most singular nouns, the ending "'s" is added; e.g., "the cat's whiskers".

• If a singular noun ends with an ⟨s⟩-sound (spelled with "-s", "-se", for example), practice varies as to whether to add "'s" or the apostrophe alone. In many cases, both spoken and written forms differ between writers .
• Acronyms and initialisms used as nouns (DVD, RADAR, UN, CDC, etc.) follow the same rules as singular nouns: e.g., "the TV's picture quality".

Basic rule (plural nouns)

When the noun is a normal plural, with an added ⟨s⟩, no extra ⟨s⟩ is added in the possessive, and it is pronounced accordingly; so "the neighbours' garden" (there is more than one neighbour owning the garden) is standard rather than "the neighbours's garden".

• If the plural is not one that is formed by adding ⟨s⟩, an ⟨s⟩ is added for the possessive, after the apostrophe: "children's hats", "women's hairdresser", "some people's eyes" (but compare "some peoples' recent emergence into nationhood", where "peoples" is meant as the plural of the singular "people"). These principles are universally accepted.
• A few English nouns have plurals that are not spelled with a final ⟨s⟩ but nevertheless end in an or a sound: "mice" (plural of "mouse"; also in compounds like "dormouse", "titmouse"), "dice" (when used as the plural of "die"), "pence" (a plural of "penny", with compounds like "sixpence" that now tend to be taken as singulars). In the absence of specific exceptional treatment in style guides, the possessives of these plurals are formed by adding an apostrophe and an ⟨s⟩ in the standard way: "seven titmice's tails were found", "the dice's last fall was a seven", "his few pence's value was not enough to buy bread". These would often be rephrased, where possible: "the last fall of the dice was a seven".

Basic rule (compound nouns)

Compound nouns have their singular possessives formed with an apostrophe and an added ⟨s⟩, in accordance with the given rules: the Attorney-General's husband; the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports's prerogative; this Minister for Justice's intervention; her father-in-law's new wife.

• In such examples, the plurals are formed with an ⟨s⟩ that does not occur at the end: e.g., attorneys-general. A problem therefore arises with the possessive plurals of these compounds. Sources that rule on the matter appear to favour the following forms, in which there is both an ⟨s⟩ added to form the plural, and a separate ⟨'s⟩ added for the possessive: the attorneys-general's husbands; successive Ministers for Justice's interventions; their fathers-in-law's new wives. Because these constructions stretch the resources of punctuation beyond comfort, in practice they are normally reworded: interventions by successive Ministers for Justice.

Joint or separate possession

For two nouns (or noun phrases) joined by and, there are several ways of expressing possession, including:

1. marking of the last noun (e.g. "Jack and Jill's children")

2. marking of both nouns (e.g. "Jack's and Jill's children").

Some grammars make no distinction in meaning between the two forms. Some publishers' style guides make a distinction, assigning the "segregatory" (or "distributive") meaning to the form "John's and Mary's" and the "combinatorial" (or "joint") meaning to the form "John and Mary's". A third alternative is a construction of the form "Jack's children and Jill's", which is always distributive, i.e. it designates the combined set of Jack's children and Jill's children.

When a coordinate possessive construction has two personal pronouns, the normal possessive inflection is used, and there is no apostrophe (e.g., "his and her children"). The issue of the use of the apostrophe arises when the coordinate construction includes a noun (phrase) and a pronoun. In this case, the inflection of only the last item may sometimes be, at least marginally, acceptable ("you and your spouse's bank account"). The inflection of both is normally preferred (e.g. Jack's and your dogs), but there is a tendency to avoid this construction, too, in favour of a construction that does not use a coordinate possessive (e.g. by using "Jack's letters and yours"). Where a construction like "Jack's and your dogs" is used, the interpretation is usually "segregatory" (i.e. not joint possession).

With other punctuation; compounds with pronouns

If the word or compound includes, or ends with, a punctuation mark, an apostrophe and an ⟨s⟩ are still added in the usual way: "Westward Ho!'s railway station"; "Awaye!'s Paulette Whitten recorded Bob Wilson's story"; Washington, D.C.'s museums. (assuming that the prevailing style requires full stops in D.C.).

• If the word or compound already includes a possessive apostrophe, a double possessive results: Tom's sisters' careers; the head of marketing's husband's preference; the master of foxhounds' best dog's death. Many style guides, while allowing that these constructions are possible, advise rephrasing: the head of marketing's husband prefers that .... If an original apostrophe or apostrophe with ⟨s⟩occurs at the end, it is left by itself to serve both purposes: Our employees are better paid than McDonald's employees; Standard & Poor's indices are widely used: the fixed forms of McDonald's and Standard & Poor's already include possessive apostrophes. For similar cases involving geographical names, see below.
• Similarly, the possessives of all phrases whose wording is fixed are formed in the same way:
  • "Us and Them"'s inclusion on the album The Dark Side of the Moon
  • You Am I's latest CD
  • The 69'ers' drummer, Tom Callaghan (only the second apostrophe is possessive)
  • His 'n' Hers's first track is called "Joyriders".
  • Was She's success greater, or King Solomon's Mines's?

For complications with foreign phrases and titles, see below.

Time, money, and similar

An apostrophe is used in time and money references in constructions such as one hour's respite, two weeks' holiday, a dollar's worth, five pounds' worth, one mile's drive from here. This is like an ordinary genitive use. For example, one hour's respite means a respite of one hour (like the cat's whiskers has the same meaning as the whiskers of the cat).

Possessive pronouns and adjectives

No apostrophe is used in the following possessive pronouns and adjectives: hers, his, its, my, mine, ours, theirs, whose, and yours. All other possessive pronouns do end with an apostrophe and an ⟨s⟩. In singular forms, the apostrophe comes first, e.g. one's; everyone's; somebody's, nobody else's, etc., while the apostrophe follows the ⟨s⟩ in plural forms as with nouns: the others' complaints. The possessive of it was originally it's, in contrast to the modern its. The apostrophe was dropped by the early 19th century. Authorities are now unanimous that it's can be only a contraction of it is or it has. Despite this, using it's as a possessive pronoun is a common grammatical error in present times.

Importance for disambiguation

Each of these four phrases (listed in Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct) has a distinct meaning:

• My sister's friend's investment (the investment belonging to a friend of my sister)
• My sister's friends' investment (the investment belonging to several friends of my sister)
• My sisters' friend's investment (the investment belonging to a friend of several of my sisters)
• My sisters' friends' investment (the investment belonging to several friends of several of my sisters)

Kingsley Amis, on being challenged to produce a sentence whose meaning depended on a possessive apostrophe, came up with:

• Those things over there are my husband's. (Those things over there belong to my husband.)
• Those things over there are my husbands'. (Those things over there belong to several husbands of mine.)
• Those things over there are my husbands. (I'm married to those men over there.)

Singular nouns ending with an ⟨s⟩ or ⟨z⟩ sound

Some singular nouns are pronounced with a sibilant sound at the end: or . The spelling of these ends with -s, -se, -z, -ze, -ce, -x, or -xe. Most respected authorities recommend that practically all singular nouns, including those ending with a sibilant sound, have possessive forms with an extra ⟨s⟩ after the apostrophe so that the spelling reflects the underlying pronunciation. Examples include Oxford University Press, the Modern Language Association, the BBC and The Economist. Such authorities demand possessive singulars like these: Bridget Jones's Diary; Tony Adams's friend; my boss's job; the US's economy. Rules that modify or extend the standard principle have included the following:

• If the singular possessive is difficult or awkward to pronounce with an added sibilant, do not add an extra ⟨s⟩; these exceptions are supported by the Yahoo! Style Guide, and The American Heritage Book of English Usage. Such sources permit possessive singulars like these: Socrates' later suggestion; or Achilles' heel if that is how the pronunciation is intended. The style guides of The Economist and The Guardian omit the extra s in this case.
• Some style guides advise that Classical, biblical, and similar names ending in a sibilant, especially if they are polysyllabic, should not take an added ⟨s⟩ in the possessive; among sources giving exceptions of this kind are The Times and The Elements of Style, which make general stipulations, and Vanderbilt University, which mentions only Moses and Jesus. As a particular case, Jesus' – referred to as "an accepted liturgical archaism" in Hart's Rules – is commonly written instead of Jesus's.
• There are also some entrenched uses, for example St James's Park (in London); however, the Newcastle stadium displays its name spelled St James' Park), St James's Palace, and the Court of St James's, St. James's Hospital (in Dublin), King James's School, Knaresborough and King James's School, Almondbury, but there is no genitive at all in St James Park (Exeter) or St. James Park (Bronx); nor is there one in the King James Bible since, like the Hebrew Bible, it is a description and not a possessive.

Although less common, some contemporary writers still follow the older practice of omitting the second 's in some cases ending with a sibilant, but usually not when written -x or -xe. The Associated Press Stylebook recommends or allows the practice of omitting the additional ⟨s⟩ in proper nouns ending with an ⟨s⟩, but not in words ending with other sibilants (⟨z⟩ and ⟨x⟩). The Chicago Manual of Style, in its 15th edition, recommended the traditional practice, which included providing for several exceptions to accommodate spoken usage such as the omission of the extra ⟨s⟩ after a polysyllabic word ending in a sibilant, but as of the 16th edition no longer recommends omitting the possessive ⟨s⟩.

Similar examples of notable names ending in an ⟨s⟩ that are often given a possessive apostrophe with no additional ⟨s⟩ include Dickens and Williams. There is often a policy of leaving off the additional ⟨s⟩ on any such name, but this can prove problematic when specific names are contradictory (for example, St James' Park in Newcastle [the football ground] and the area of St James's Park in London); however, debate has been going on regarding the punctuation of St James' Park (Newcastle) for some time, unlike St James's Park (London) which is the less contentious version.

Some writers like to reflect standard spoken practice in cases like these with sake: for convenience' sake, for goodness' sake, for appearance' sake, for compromise' sake, etc. This punctuation is preferred in major style guides. Others prefer to add 's: for convenience's sake. Still others prefer to omit the apostrophe when there is an ⟨s⟩ sound before sake: for morality's sake, but for convenience sake.

Nouns ending with silent ⟨s⟩, ⟨x⟩, or ⟨z⟩

The English possessive of French nouns ending in a silent ⟨s⟩, ⟨x⟩, or ⟨z⟩ is addressed by various style guides. Certainly a sibilant is pronounced in examples like Descartes's and Dumas's; the question addressed here is whether ⟨s⟩ needs to be added. Similar examples with ⟨x⟩ or ⟨z⟩: Sauce Périgueux's main ingredient is truffle; His pince-nez's loss went unnoticed; "Verreaux('s) eagle, a large, predominantly black eagle, Aquila verreauxi,..." (OED, entry for "Verreaux", with silent ⟨x⟩; see Verreaux's eagle); in each of these some writers might omit the added ⟨s⟩. The same principles and residual uncertainties apply with "naturalised" English words, like Illinois and Arkansas.

For possessive plurals of words ending in a silent ⟨x⟩, ⟨z⟩ or ⟨s⟩, the few authorities that address the issue at all typically call for an added ⟨s⟩ and suggest that the apostrophe precede the ⟨s⟩: The Loucheux's homeland is in the Yukon; Compare the two Dumas's literary achievements. The possessive of a cited French title with a silent plural ending is uncertain: "Trois femmes's long and complicated publication history", but "Les noces' singular effect was 'exotic primitive' ..." (with nearby sibilants -ce- in noces and s- in singular). Guides typically seek a principle that will yield uniformity, even for foreign words that fit awkwardly with standard English punctuation.

Possessives in geographic names

Place names in the United States do not use the possessive apostrophe on federal maps and signs. The United States Board on Geographic Names, which has responsibility for formal naming of municipalities and geographic features, has deprecated the use of possessive apostrophes since 1890 so as not to show ownership of the place. Only five names of natural features in the US are officially spelled with a genitive apostrophe: Martha's Vineyard; Ike's Point, New Jersey; John E's Pond, Rhode Island; Carlos Elmer's Joshua View, Arizona; and Clark's Mountain, Oregon. Some municipalities, originally incorporated using the apostrophe, have dropped it in accordance with this policy; Taylors Falls in Minnesota, for example, was originally incorporated as "Taylor's Falls". On the state level, the federal policy is not always followed: Vermont's official state website has a page on Camel's Hump State Forest.

Australia's Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping also has a no-apostrophe policy, a practice it says goes back to the 1900s and which is generally followed around the country. On the other hand, the United Kingdom has Bishop's Stortford, Bishop's Castle and King's Lynn (among many others) but St Albans, St Andrews and St Helens. London Underground's Piccadilly line has the adjacent stations of Earl's Court in Earl's Court and Barons Court. These names were mainly fixed in form many years before grammatical rules were fully standardised. While Newcastle United play football at a stadium called St James' Park, and Exeter City at St James Park, London has a St James's Park (this whole area of London is named after the parish of St James's Church, Piccadilly). Modern usage has been influenced by considerations of technological convenience including the economy of typewriter ribbons and films, and similar computer character "disallowance" which tend to ignore past standards. Practice in the United Kingdom and Canada is not so uniform.

Possessives in names of organizations

Sometimes the apostrophe is omitted in the names of clubs, societies, and other organizations, even though the standard principles seem to require it: Country Women's Association, but International Aviation Womens Association; Magistrates' Court of Victoria, but Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union. Usage is variable and inconsistent. Style guides typically advise consulting an official source for the standard form of the name (as one would do if uncertain about other aspects of the spelling of the name); some tend towards greater prescriptiveness, for or against such an apostrophe. As the case of womens shows, it is not possible to analyze these forms simply as non-possessive plurals, since women is the only correct plural form of woman.

Possessives in business names

Where a business name is based on a family name it should in theory take an apostrophe, but many leave it out (contrast Sainsbury's with Harrods). In recent times there has been an increasing tendency to drop the apostrophe. Names based on a first name are more likely to take an apostrophe, but this is not always the case. Some business names may inadvertently spell a different name if the name with an ⟨s⟩ at the end is also a name, such as Parson. A small activist group called the Apostrophe Protection Society, with "the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this currently much abused punctuation mark" across the English-speaking world, has campaigned for large retailers such as Harrods, Currys, and Selfridges to reinstate their missing punctuation. A spokesperson for Barclays PLC stated, "It has just disappeared over the years. Barclays is no longer associated with the family name." Further confusion can be caused by businesses whose names look as if they should be pronounced differently without an apostrophe, such as Paulos Circus, and other companies that leave the apostrophe out of their logos but include it in written text, such as Cadwalader's.

Apostrophe showing omission

An apostrophe is commonly used to indicate omitted characters, normally letters:

• It is used in contractions, such as can't from cannot, it's from it is or it has, and I'll from I will or I shall.
• It is used in abbreviations, as gov't for government. It may indicate omitted numbers where the spoken form is also capable of omissions, as '70s for 1970s representing seventies for nineteen-seventies. In modern usage, apostrophes are generally omitted when letters are removed from the start of a word, particularly for a compound word. For example, it is not common to write 'bus (for omnibus), 'phone (telephone), 'net (Internet); however, if the shortening is unusual, dialectal or archaic, the apostrophe may still be used to mark it (e.g., 'bout for about, 'less for unless, 'twas for it was). Sometimes a misunderstanding of the original form of a word results in a non-standard contraction. A common example: 'til for until, although till is in fact the original form, and until is derived from it.
  • The spelling fo'c's'le, contracted from the nautical term forecastle, is unusual for having three apostrophes. The spelling bo's'n's (from boatswain's), as in Bo's'n's Mate, also has three apostrophes, two showing omission and one possession. Fo'c's'le may also take a possessive s – as in the fo'c's'le's timbers – giving four apostrophes in one word. A word which formerly contained two apostrophes is sha'n't for shall not, examples of which may be found in the older works of P. G. Wodehouse and "Frank Richards" (Charles Hamilton), but this has been superseded by shan't.
  • Shortenings with more apostrophes, such as y'all'dn't've (y'all wouldn't have), are possible, particularly in Southern US dialects.
• It is sometimes used when the normal form of an inflection seems awkward or unnatural; for example, KO'd rather than KOed (where KO is used as a verb meaning "to knock out"); "a spare pince-nez'd man" (cited in OED, entry for "pince-nez"; pince-nezed is also in citations).
• An apostrophe's function as possessive or contractive can depend on the grammatical context:
  • We rehearsed for Friday's opening night. (We rehearsed for the opening night on Friday.)
  • We rehearsed because Friday's opening night. (We rehearsed because Friday is opening night. "Friday's" here is a contraction of "Friday is".)
• Eye dialects use apostrophes in creating the effect of a non-standard pronunciation.
• Apostrophes to omit letters in place names are common on British road signs when space does not allow for the full name – for example, Wolverhampton abbreviated as "W'hampton" and Kidderminster as "K'minster".
• The United States Board on Geographic Names, while discouraging possessive apostrophes in place names, allows apostrophes indicating omission, as in "Lake O' the Woods", or when normally present in a surname, as in "O'Malley Draw".

Use in forming some plurals

Following an evolution in usage in the 20th century, today "the apostrophe of plurality continues in at least five areas": abbreviations, letters of the alphabet/small words, numbers, family names, and in non-standard use.

Abbreviations

To pluralize abbreviations, including acronyms, the use of s without an apostrophe is now more common than its use with an apostrophe. Most modern style guides disparage the use of apostrophes in all plural abbreviations. Some references continue to condone their use, or even recommend their use in some abbreviations. For example, The Canadian Style states "Add an apostrophe and s to form the plural of abbreviations containing more than one period", so G.M.'s is preferred to G.M.s. The Oxford Companion to the English Language condones V.I.P.'s, VIP's, and VIPs equally.

Letters of the alphabet, and small words

For single lowercase letters, pluralization with 's is usual. Many guides recommend apostrophes whether the single letters are lowercase (as in "minding your p's and q's") or uppercase (as in "A's and S's"). The Chicago Manual of Style recommends the apostrophe of plurality only for lowercase letters. Sometimes, adding just s rather than 's may leave meaning ambiguous or presentation inelegant; however, an apostrophe is not always the preferred solution. APA style requires the use of italics instead of an apostrophe: ps, ns, etc. In the phrase dos and don'ts, most modern style guides disparage spelling the first word as do's; however, there is a lack of consensus and certainly the use of an apostrophe continues, legitimately, in which "the apostrophe of plurality occurs in the first word but not the second".

Numbers and symbols

The Oxford Companion to the English Language notes that "a plural s after a set of numbers is often preceded by an apostrophe, as in 3's and 4's..., but many housestyles and individuals now favour 3s and 4s". Most style guides prefer the lack of apostrophe for groups of years (e.g. 1980s) and will prefer 90s or '90s over 90's or '90's. While many guides discourage using an apostrophe in all numbers/dates, many other guides encourage using an apostrophe for numbers or are divided on the issue; for example, the Australian Government Style Manual recommends "Binary code uses 0's and 1's" but recommends "the 2020s". Still other guides take a laissez-faire approach. For example, the University of Sussex's online guide notes regional variation in the use of apostrophes in dates, and slightly prefers 1's and 7's over 1s and 7s but condones both.

The apostrophe is very often used in plurals of symbols, for example "that page has too many &'s and #'s on it". Some style guides state that the apostrophe is unnecessary since there is no ambiguity but that some editors and teachers prefer this usage. The addition of an s without an apostrophe may make the text difficult to read. For many numbers and symbols, a useful alternative is to write out the numbers as words (e.g. thousands instead of 1000s or 1000's, and ampersands instead of &s or &'s).

Family names

The vast majority of English references published from the late 20th century onwards disparage the use of apostrophes in family-name plurals, for example identifying Joneses as correct and Jones's as incorrect. As an exception, the Oxford Companion to the English Language (2018) reports that, in addition to Joneses etc., standard apostrophe usage does continue "in family names, especially if they end in -s, as in keeping up with the Jones's".

Nonstandard use

See § Superfluous apostrophes ("greengrocers' apostrophes"), below.

Use in non-English names

Names that are not strictly native to English sometimes have an apostrophe substituted to represent other characters (see also As a mark of elision, below).

• Anglicised versions of Irish surnames typically contain an apostrophe after an O (in place of Ó), for example "Dara O'Briain" for Dara Ó Briain.
• Some Scottish and Irish surnames use an apostrophe after an M, for example M'Gregor. The apostrophe here may be seen as marking a contraction where the prefix Mc or Mac would normally appear; however, it may also arise from a misinterpretation of printers' use of an inverted comma, ‘ (turned comma or "6-quote"), as a substitute for superscript c when printing with hand-set metal type. Compare: M'Lean, M^cLean, M‘Lean.

Use in transliteration

In transliterated foreign words, an apostrophe may be used to separate letters or syllables that otherwise would likely be interpreted incorrectly. For example:

• in the Arabic word mus'haf, a transliteration of مصحف, the syllables are as in mus·haf, not mu·shaf
• in the Japanese name Shin'ichi, the apostrophe shows that the pronunciation is shi·n·i·chi (hiragana しんいち), where the letters n (ん) and i (い) are separate morae, rather than shi·ni·chi (しにち).
• in the Chinese Pinyin romanization, the apostrophe (', 隔音符號, géyīn fúhào, 'syllable-dividing mark') is used before a syllable starting with a vowel (a, o, or e) in a multiple-syllable word when the syllable does not start the word (which is most commonly realized as ), unless the syllable immediately follows a hyphen or other dash. This is done to remove ambiguity that could arise, as in Xi'an, which consists of the two syllables xi ("西") an ("安"), compared to such words as xian ("先"). This ambiguity does not occur when tone marks are used. The two tone marks in Xīān unambiguously show that the word consists of two syllables; however, even with tone marks, the city is usually spelled with an apostrophe as Xī'ān.

Furthermore, an apostrophe may be used to indicate a glottal stop in transliterations. For example:

• in the Arabic word Qur'an, a common transliteration of (part of) القرآن al-qur'ān, the apostrophe corresponds to the diacritic maddah over the 'alif, one of the letters in the Arabic alphabet. An 'alif by itself would indicate the long vowel ā, and the maddah adds a glottal stop.

Rather than ʿ (modifier letter left half ring), the apostrophe is sometimes used to indicate a voiced pharyngeal fricative as it sounds and looks like the glottal stop to most English speakers. For example:

• in the Arabic word Ka'aba for الكعبة al-kaʿbah, the apostrophe corresponds to the Arabic letter ʿayn.

Finally, in "scientific" transliteration of Cyrillic script, the apostrophe usually represents the soft sign ь, although in "ordinary" transliteration it is usually omitted. For example,

• "The Ob River (Russian: Обь), also Ob', is a major river in western Siberia."

Non-standard English use

If you have a name that ends in "s," or if you will observe home-made signs selling tomatoes or chili-and-beans, you will quickly note what can be done with a possessive apostrophe in reckless hands.

— Algis Budrys, 1965

Failure to observe standard use of the apostrophe is widespread and frequently criticised as incorrect, often generating heated debate. The British founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society earned a 2001 Ig Nobel prize for "efforts to protect, promote and defend the differences between plural and possessive". A 2004 report by British examination board OCR stated that "the inaccurate use of the apostrophe is so widespread as to be almost universal". A 2008 survey found that nearly half of the UK adults polled were unable to use the apostrophe correctly.

Superfluous apostrophes ("greengrocers' apostrophes")

Apostrophes used in a non-standard manner to form noun plurals are known as greengrocers' apostrophes or grocer's apostrophes. They are sometimes humorously called greengrocers apostrophe's, rogue apostrophes, or idiot's apostrophes (a literal translation of the German word Deppenapostroph, which criticises the misapplication of apostrophes in Denglisch). The practice, once common and acceptable (see Historical development), comes from the identical sound of the plural and possessive forms of most English nouns. It is often criticised as a form of hypercorrection coming from a widespread ignorance of the proper use of the apostrophe or of punctuation in general. Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, points out that before the 19th century it was standard orthography to use the apostrophe to form a plural of a foreign-sounding word that ended in a vowel (e.g., banana's, folio's, logo's, quarto's, pasta's, ouzo's) to clarify pronunciation. Truss says this usage is no longer considered proper in formal writing.

The term is believed to have been coined in the middle of the 20th century by a teacher of languages working in Liverpool, at a time when such mistakes were common in the handwritten signs and advertisements of greengrocers (e.g., Apple's 1/- a pound, Orange's 1/6 a pound). Some have argued that its use in mass communication by employees of well-known companies has led to the less literate assuming it to be standard and adopting the habit themselves.

The same use of apostrophe before noun plural -s forms is sometimes made by non-native speakers of English. For example, in Dutch, the apostrophe is inserted before the s when pluralising most words ending in a vowel or y for example, baby's (English babies) and radio's (English radios). This often produces so-called "Dunglish" errors when carried over into English. Hyperforeignism has been formalised in some pseudo-anglicisms. For example, the French word pin's (from English pin) is used (with the apostrophe in both singular and plural) for collectible lapel pins. Similarly, there is an Andorran football club called FC Rànger's (after such British clubs as Rangers F.C.) and a Japanese dance group called Super Monkey's.

Omission

In the UK there is a tendency to drop apostrophes in many commonly used names such as St Annes, St Johns Lane, and so on. UK supermarket chain Tesco omits the mark where standard practice would require it. Signs in Tesco advertise (among other items) "mens magazines", "girls toys", "kids books" and "womens shoes". In his book Troublesome Words, author Bill Bryson lambasts Tesco for this, stating that "the mistake is inexcusable, and those who make it are linguistic Neanderthals."

The United States Board on Geographic Names discourages the use of possessive apostrophes in geographic names although state agencies do not always conform; Vermont's official state website provides information concerning Camel's Hump State Forest. The Geographical Names Board of New South Wales, Australia, excludes possessive apostrophes from place names, along with other punctuation.

Particular cases

George Bernard Shaw, a proponent of English spelling reform on phonetic principles, argued that the apostrophe was mostly redundant. He did not use it for spelling cant, hes, etc., in many of his writings; however, he allowed I'm and it's. Hubert Selby Jr. used a slash instead of an apostrophe mark for contractions and did not use an apostrophe at all for possessives. Lewis Carroll made greater use of apostrophes, and frequently used sha'n't, with an apostrophe in place of the elided ll as well as the more usual o. These authors' usages have not become widespread. The British pop group Hear'Say famously made unconventional use of an apostrophe in its name. Truss comments that "the naming of Hear'Say in 2001 was ... a significant milestone on the road to punctuation anarchy".

Criticism

Over the years, the use of apostrophes has been criticised. George Bernard Shaw called them "uncouth bacilli", referring to the apostrophe-like shape of many bacteria. The author and language commentator Anu Garg has called for the abolition of the apostrophe, stating "Some day this world would be free of metastatic cancers, narcissistic con men, and the apostrophe". In his book American Speech, linguist Steven Byington stated of the apostrophe that "the language would be none the worse for its abolition". Adrian Room, in his English Journal article "Axing the Apostrophe", argued that apostrophes are unnecessary, and context will resolve any ambiguity.

In a letter to the English Journal, Peter Brodie stated that apostrophes are "largely decorative ... [and] rarely clarify meaning". John C. Wells, emeritus professor of phonetics at University College London, says the apostrophe is "a waste of time". The Apostrophe Protection Society, founded by retired journalist John Richards in 2001, closed in 2019, after a period of 18 years of campaigning for its preservation and correct usage. Closing the association, Richards, then aged 96, said that "We, and our many supporters worldwide, have done our best but the ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won!". In a Chronicle of Higher Education blog, Geoffrey Pullum proposed that the apostrophe be considered the 27th letter of the alphabet, arguing that it is not a form of punctuation.