How To Use the Apostrophe

Apostrophes in street signs have been banned by a council because its staff spend too much time dealing with complaints about grammar.

From now on, no sign produced by Birmingham City Council will contain the punctuation mark.

Debates over whether Kings Norton really should be King’s – or even Kings’ – Norton may rage on, but they will be useless.

And nearby Druids Heath – which was never actually home to one, let alone many, druids – will never take on the possessive, no matter how furious local apostrophe advocates become.

The council said the move had been taken for the purposes of consistency and to avoid costs and confusion over whether place names should ever take an apostrophe.

However the decision was described as “absolute defeatism” by John Richards, the founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society.

from: Telegraph

The simplest is when an apostrophe replaces a letter

• It is = It’s.
• I am = I’m

Singular Possessive.

An Apostrophe is used to indicate possession.

• E.g. Richard’s computer. (the computer belonging to Richard)

Singular Possessive ending in s

• Socrates’ discourses (the teachings of Socrates)

Plural Possessive

If many people are involved we put the apostrophe at the end

• The nurses’ uniform (the uniform belonging to the many nurses.)