How to see it
An apostrophe does two jobs. It marks missing letters: hadn't, it's. And it marks an owner. One owner: apostrophe s, the dog's lead. Owners ending in s: the apostrophe after the s, the dogs' leads. A plural with no s: apostrophe s, the children's coats. A plain plural owns nothing, so no apostrophe. Nor does its, meaning belonging to it. Name the owner, then count.
A worked example
The cats' basket was by the fire.
Find the owner: it is the word just before the apostrophe. Here, that is cats. Cats ends in s and means more than one. So more than one cat shares the basket. For one cat, the apostrophe would come before the s: the cat's basket.
The common mistake: one owner or many: girl's or girls'
The trap is placing the apostrophe before counting the owners. Three girls share one tent. The girl's tent says one girl owns it. Name the owner first: the girls, more than one. So the apostrophe goes after the s.
Try one
Find the mistake, or choose N for no mistake.
- AThe ducklings'
- Bfollowed their
- Cmother across
- Dthe farm track.
- Nno mistake
Show the answerHide the answer
Right: A, The ducklings'
The ducklings do not own anything here. It is a plain plural, so no apostrophe.