This short article concerns neither the labour ward nor jealous spouses.
It’s about apostrophes.
Apostrophes are tedious, insignificant, fiddly punctuation marks, right?
Well, no, they’re indicators that tell us if a word has been shortened by positioning the apostrophe in place of missing letter(s); their second function is to indicate whether something belongs to something else.
Failing to use apostrophes in the correct manner may flummox some among your audience; others may steer clear of your spiel because they equate sloppy punctuation with equally mediocre products or services.
With contractions, the apostrophe dangles in the space created by the missing letter(s), for example, it doesn’t is the contraction of it does not.
With possessives, the apostrophe perches after the noun that describes its owner(s), for example, the girl’s bedroom; if the bedroom belongs to more than one girl, it is the girls’ bedroom.
There is one word that confuses many, and that word is it. Depending on whether you apostrophise it, the word it indicates either possession (see its owner(s) above) or contraction (see It’s about above).
