Blogging Tips

Punctuation can be a pain in the butt. There are so many difficult things to understand in the English language that even native speakers have a hard time with writing. One of the most common problems bloggers have is using the apostrophe ( ‘ ).

PattyAnnV
Most of the time apostrophes are used to combine words to create a contraction, such as “do not” is transformed into “don’t”. Another such example is “she is”, which is transformed into “she’s”. The apostrophe takes the place of the letter (s) that you leave out. This information is pretty basic for native and non-native speakers alike, but hold on there if you think you’re a punctuation wizard.

There are more confusing things than creating contractions with apostrophes. Another thing that apostrophes can do is show possession.

Example:

Ralph’s car drives very smoothly.

In this example, “Ralph’s” is not a contraction for “Ralph is”, instead the apostrophe is used to show that the car belongs to Ralph.

Let’s try another one.
Example:
Let’s go to your dad’s house.

Don’t get confused by the two apostrophes in this sentence even though they both serve different functions. The first apostrophe in “let’s” means “let us”. In this case, the apostrophe creates a contraction for “let us”. The second apostrophe in the sentence, “dad’s”, is showing possession. The speaker wants to go to the house that belongs to “dad”. If you don’t include the apostrophe in “dad’s” then you are saying that there is more than one dad, “dads”.

Have the words lost their meaning yet? Don’t worry, it will get easier. Anytime something belongs to someone, such as a phone, car, flower, anything, it needs an apostrophe if you add an “s” at the end.

John’s phone.
Mom’s car.
Patty’s flower.

All of these things belong to the person.

I don’t want to throw you for a loop, but there is a case when these rules are just not true. When it comes to “its” and “it’s” punctuation can be tricky.

When you say “it’s”, it is a contraction for “it is” or “it has”. When you say “its”, this means that this word has possession. If you find yourself saying “what? This doesn’t make any sense, you just said something else above!” I did, and not to worry. This is what all of this means:

With “it’s”, it always means “it is” or “it has”. This never means that it is possessing anything even though there is an apostrophe.

Example:
It’s a nice day. It’s cold outside. It’s a beautiful car.

With “its”, it always means that it’s possessing something.

Example:
The cat is known for its stealthy maneuvers.

When you write “its”, you can substitute the word “his” or “her” in its place so that you know if you are using the word correctly.

The cat is known for HER stealthy maneuvers.

If you can’t put in “his” or “her”, then you’re using the wrong word.

Take a look at this:
Its a nice day. Translation: Her a nice day.
This doesn’t make sense. You need to have the apostrophe so that “its” really means “it is” (it’s).

Punctuation can be hard for any of us bloggers, so if you aren’t sure type it into a search engine and look it up just to make sure. Although there are other ways to use apostrophes, this information should help you get started.