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The Apostrophe Protection Society
23 Vauxhall Road, Boston, Lincs. PE21 0JB
United Kingdom
Email: john.richards2@virgin.net
The Apostrophe Protection Society was started in 2001 by John Richards, now
its Chairman, with the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this
currently much abused punctuation mark in all forms of text written in the
English language.
The rules concerning the use of Apostrophes in written English are very
simple:
1. They are used to denote a missing letter or letters, for example:
 | I can't instead of I cannot |
| I don't instead of I do not |
| it's instead of it is |
2. They are used to denote possession, for example:
| the dog's bone |
| the company's logo |
| Jones's bakery (but Joneses' bakery if owned by more than one
Jones) |
... but please note that the possessive form of it does not take an
apostrophe any more than ours, yours or hers do
| the bone is in its mouth |
... however, if there are two or more dogs, companies or Joneses in our example, the
apostrophe comes after the 's':
| the dogs' bones |
| the companies' logos |
| Joneses' bakeries |
3. Apostrophes are NEVER ever used to denote
plurals! Common examples of such abuse (all seen in real life!) are:
| Banana's for sale which of course should read Bananas for sale |
| Menu's printed to order which should read Menus printed to order |
| MOT's at this garage which should read MOTs at this garage |
| 1000's of bargains here! which should read 1000s of bargains
here! |
| New CD's just in! which should read New CDs just in! |
| Buy your Xmas tree's here! which should read Buy your Xmas trees
here! |
Note: Special care must be taken over the use of your
and you're as they sound the same but are used quite differently:
your is possessive as in this is your pen
you're is short for you are as in you're coming
over to my house
We are aware of the way the English language is evolving during use, and do
not intend any direct criticism of those who have made the mistakes above.
We are just reminding all writers of English text, whether on notices or in
documents of any type, of the correct usage of the apostrophe should you wish to
put right mistakes you may have inadvertently made.
On our Examples page you will see pictures of
real-life apostrophe abuse!
NB: Due to the receipt of huge amounts of 'spam' and virus
emails, the address previously used for the submission of examples has been
withdrawn. (27 August 2003)
Please place written examples of misuse of the apostrophe you have seen on our Message
Board for discussion.
For general enquiries about the Apostrophe Protection Society, please
contact its Chairman by Email by clicking: john.richards2@virgin.net
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Site started: June 2001 |
Site last updated: 14 January 2008
© Copyright 2001-2008 The Apostrophe Protection
Society and Floating Lily Designs, Dorset, UK |
