When is an apostrophe used to form a plural




















Several of the Eleanor Crosses are still standing today. In British usage, we do not use an apostrophe in pluralizing dates : This research was carried out in the s. American usage, however, does put an apostrophe here: A This research was carried out in the 's.

You should not adopt this practice unless you are specifically writing for an American audience. In writing the plurals of numbers, usage varies.

Both of the following may be encountered: If you're sending mail to the Continent, it's advisable to use continental 1s and 7s in the address. If you're sending mail to the Continent, it's advisable to use continental 1's and 7's in the address.

The plural of Hastings is Hastingses. The members of the Birch family are the Birches. Rule 2e. Never use an apostrophe to make a name plural. Correct: The Wilsons are here. Correct: We visited the Sanchezes. Rule 3. If the compound noun e. Rule 4a. Note: As the above examples demonstrate, when one of the co-owners is written as a pronoun, use possessive adjectives my , your , her , our , their.

Avoid possessive pronouns mine , yours , hers , ours , theirs in such constructions. It should be mentioned that compound possessives are often clunky as well as confusing. Big difference. Such ambiguous sentences should just be rewritten. Rule 4b. In cases of separate rather than joint possession, use the possessive form for both. The homes belong to both of them. Rule 5. Use an apostrophe with contractions.

The apostrophe is placed where a letter or letters have been removed. Rule 6. There are various approaches to plurals for abbreviations, single letters, and numerals. Many writers and editors prefer an apostrophe after single capitalized letters. See Rule 2b. Examples: There are two new MPs on the base.

He learned his ABCs. She consulted with three M. Some write M. There are different schools of thought about years and decades. The following examples are all in widespread use:.

Rule 7. Amounts of time or money are sometimes used as possessive adjectives that require apostrophes. Rule 8. Apostrophes can be tricky.

Sometimes they form possessives. Sometimes they form contractions. Can they ever make something plural? A contraction is a shortened form of a word or group of words that omits certain letters or sounds. In a contraction, an apostrophe represents missing letters. Grammarly can save you from misspellings, grammatical and punctuation mistakes, and other writing issues on all your favorite websites.

Some writers use less common contractions when they want to represent a particular style of speech. Contractions are usually considered to be relatively casual. The rules about forming possessives probably cause the most apostrophe confusion. They vary a little bit, depending on what type of noun you are making into a possessive.



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