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The Philosophy behind the Apostrophe

Posted on Jan 18, 2024

Whether it’s to cut down on tedious pronunciation or simply to say which thing belongs to whom, the irreplaceable apostrophe stands—or rather hangs—as one of the most essential and important punctuation marks in the English language.

If you’ve ever been in a hurry, you’ll know that the less time it takes to say what you have to say, the better. The English language is chock-full of shortcuts that make this possible. For instance, you can say “won’t” instead of “will not,” “he’s” instead of “he is,” and “y’all’d’ve’f’I’d’ve” instead of “you all would have if I would have.” Time is money, and apostrophes help you make every cent count.

Not to be confused with the literary device used to address absent persons or personified concepts (“O Death! O Providence!”), the apostrophe, according to Merriam-Webster, is defined as “a mark used to indicate the omission of letters or figures, the possessive case, or the plural of letters or figures.”

This is most commonly used in contractions, as seen in the examples earlier, which can be as short as “I’d” (“I would”) or as long as vernacular standards dictate. Some contractions even require apostrophes at the beginning of the word, such as “’twas” in place of “it was” or “’tis” in place of “it is” although those particular contractions are mostly useful if you’re reciting Christmas carols or if you lived in the time of Shakespeare.

In fact, the use of the apostrophe in contractions was first practiced by the French sometime in the 1500s before English speakers followed suit. Ammon Shea, author of Bad English, shares that the usage was “not very common at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and it took a while to catch on . . . There was confusion and consternation because people didn’t really know what the apostrophe was doing in the possessive, the genitive case.” She adds, “Some people thought it was a mark of elision, so ‘the king’s book’ was a shortening of ‘the king his book.’ Some people think that what the apostrophe is doing is going back to our Old English roots.”

The apostrophe is additionally a must-use mark when it comes to the possessive cases of words, and it’s important to pay attention to the mark’s placement. As such, the typical rule for generic terms is to place the apostrophe before s.

My sister’s guitars are her most valued possessions.

Placement is everything. For instance, the above sentence means differently if you move that mark just after s, indicating that you may come from a big family or, rather, that all your female siblings just happen to be musically inclined.

My sisters’ guitars are their most valued possessions.

For that matter, possessive phrases such as “my sister’s guitar’s strings,” “my sister’s guitars’ strings,” “my sisters’ guitars’ strings,” and so on mean completely different things. Nevertheless, a few exceptions for this generic punctuation rule can be found, such as with the expressions “for goodness’ sake” or “for righteousness’ sake.”

In the case of, well, the possessive case for proper nouns that end with s, such as surnames, style guides differ slightly in apostrophe usage; nowadays, the common practice is to add another s after the apostrophe for singular terms, though the same rule of adding an apostrophe at the end of a plural term still applies.

Mrs. Angus’s dog is a cutie.

The Anguses’ garden is very well-kept.

However, if we were to discuss, say, ancient Greek and Roman culture, we would be instructed to leave no s after the apostrophe for names ending in an eez sound.

We learned about Achilles’ battles in class.

Archimedes’ math theories always give me a headache.

Sometimes the apostrophe is even used to pluralize nonpossessive terms. For example, you probably remember your elementary schoolteacher reminding you to “cross your t’s and dot your i’s.”

In essence, the apostrophe is not only a useful tool for “cutting to the chase” in grammar but also a necessity in pinpointing possessive terms. Ultimately, apostrophes should be left hanging in appropriate places in appropriate English words but shouldn’t leaving you “hanging” for clarity!

Our new Punctuation Series brings you easy-to-understand rules and fun trivia about your favorite punctuation marks! For more entries, visit the 1-Hour Proofreading blog!

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Back to Grammary

In this series, we shine a spotlight on the most unsung heroes of language: punctuation marks. For this part of the series, we’re going to talk about quite a breathtaking mark. Like others, this one gets overlooked a lot, but if not for this particular punctuation mark, we probably would have run out of air. Let’s all take a pause and talk about the comma.

Behind the Mark

We can trace the roots of the comma back to third century BC in a system of single dots that indicated the “amount of breath” one was to take when reading verses aloud. The comma is a mark that is used across different languages and is available in different typefaces.

The comma shares a symbol similar to the apostrophe and the single quotation mark: a small dot with a tail. The difference is in placement because unlike the apostrophe and the single quotation mark, the comma is placed at the bottom of the line.

How to Use It in English

There are several uses for the comma, but generally, the comma has two functions: pauses and linkage. This is because the commas are used to distinguish separate but related ideas.

For one, commas are used to separate items in a list. The use of the comma in lists indicates not only separation but also the link between all the items within the list.

The new subjects include geography, biology, ethnography, and statistics.

Another important use of the comma is to separate clauses. Two dependent clauses may be separated by a comma. This again goes back to the idea that commas are used for distinguishing related ideas.

Ginger wanted to become a doctor, but she also wanted to teach.

Some adverbs also require the use of the comma when they are used. These include therefore, however, nevertheless, and others. Should these adverbs be used in the middle of a sentence, they would have to be preceded and followed by a comma.

Furthermore, studies show that smoking causes harm to both the smoker and anyone inhaling the smoke for cigarettes. It is recommended, therefore, that smoking be banned from public places.

In some cases, commas are used in place of parentheses, as in the case of parenthetical phrases. These phrases contain information that are not necessary to the meaning of the sentence.

Kath’s grandmother, whom she considers her closest relative, will be attending her graduation.

The comma is also a valuable punctuation mark when using vocatives and quotations.

In his speech today, the mayor said, “Students who apply for scholarships will also be eligible to receive a monthly allowance.” And that, Rose, is why you should aim for better grades this semester.

The comma also has plenty of uses outside of grammar. In mathematics, commas are used to separate numerical values. They are also used to separate geographical locations, names, and titles, as well as dates.

There are 525,600 minutes in one year.

I used to live in Nashville, Tennessee.

Today’s keynote speaker is Charles Xavier, PhD.

In speech as well as literature, commas mark a pause (as opposed to the full stop indicated by periods). The comma also retained its original use of marking breaths.

The Oxford Comma

One of the most controversial issues surrounding the comma is its elevated form, the Oxford comma. The Oxford comma is a highly contested and highly polarizing use of the mark. People either feel that it is absolutely necessary or absolutely useless.

The Oxford comma, or the serial comma, is an “optional” comma that comes before the word and on the last item of a list. For cases such as single-word lists, the serial comma may seem unnecessary, such as in the example below.

Popular dog breeds for large families include the Golden Retriever, the Labrador Retriever and the Newfoundland.

However, some lists may be confusing without the extra comma. Read this sentence below to see what I mean.

The lawyer’s clients include a teacher, a newly divorced mom and an accused murderer.

See the problem? Without the Oxford comma, two meanings could be gleaned from the above sentence: the lawyer has three distinct clients, or the lawyer’s client is a teacher, mom, and murderer all in one. Here it is easy to see the importance of the Oxford comma.

As is the case with plenty of rule makers (grammarians and linguists included), one of the aims is to standardize the use of the Oxford comma, making it more than just an option. While practitioners of the language are yet to come to an agreement, for now, the rule of thumb is to follow what the style guide you’re using says about the subject. For example, most academic style guides always require an Oxford comma, but most publication style guides don’t. It all boils down to whom you’re writing for.

Phew! Safe to say, that was more than just a pause. Safe to say, the comma is one punctuation mark that’s sure to pack a punch. We hope you learned plenty today, and we hope you stick around for the rest of 1-Hour Proofreading’s Punctuation Series!

Still unsure about the comma? We’ve got your back! Send your documents through our main page here at 1hourproofreading.com and we’ll make sure to keep all of them in check.

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The Philosophy behind the Apostrophe

Whether it’s to cut down on tedious pronunciation or simply to say which thing belongs to whom, the irreplaceable apostrophe stands—or rather hangs—as one of the most essential and important punctuation marks in the English language.

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