A Word, Please: Tips on how to avoid common apostrophe errors

Let’s face it, grammar is more important for some people than for others. An ambulance driver probably has more important things to worry about than whether to hyphenate adverbs ending in “ly.” (FYI: Don’t do it.)

Still, in the digital age, everyone’s writing is on display, if only in the occasional Facebook comment or message board post. No one likes to look bad in print. And if there’s one thing that everyone who wants to look good should know, it’s how to avoid apostrophe errors.

Little things that they are, apostrophes can make a big statement to the reader. An “it’s” in place of “its” can determine whether you’re perceived as literate or, um, not. So here are some of the most common apostrophe errors I see and how to avoid them.

“It’s” in place of “its.” If there’s one thing that separates the word-savvy from the pack, this is it. The “it’s” with an apostrophe always means either “it is” or “it has”: “It’s a beautiful day.” Never use it to show possession. Possessive “its” has no apostrophe: “The dog wagged its tail.”

“Who’s” in place of “whose.” The same idea applies. Only use the apostrophe when you’re making a contraction of two words, either “who is” or “who has.” For example, “Who’s being considered for the job?” “Who’s been to Europe?” The one-word version is the only choice to show possession. “Whose car is that?” “Whose house can hold that many party guests?”

“Let’s” in place of “lets.” The contraction rule applies once again. But here it’s a little harder because the two words that are contracted in “let’s” aren’t that obvious. “Let’s” means “let us,” which isn’t something we use a lot in this longer form. We prefer “Let’s go to the movies” over “Let us go to the movies.” But remember that without an apostrophe, “lets” is the verb “to let” conjugated in the third person: “He lets his kids watch TV.”

Apostrophes to form plurals of words that end in vowels, the letter Z or X, or letter combinations like Ch and Sh. I know that the plural of “alibi” looks like it should be pronounced “ali-BISS” and that the plural of “zoo” looks like it would rhyme with “moose.”

Also, I know that if you’re the kind of person who refers to a load of laundry as “a wash,” its plural can look like a verb: “He washes two washes.” But there’s no excuse for inserting an apostrophe in any of these.

With the rare exception of signs in all capital letters, you never use an apostrophe to form a plural. One Lamborghini, two Lamborghinis. One latch, two latches. One zoo, two zoos. One fax, two faxes. One Chavez, two Chavezes. One bonobo, two bonobos. Even when these plurals look like they would be pronounced wrong, they still don’t take apostrophes.

Confusion about plural possessives. Apostrophes show possession — simple stuff when dealing with singulars like “dog” in “the dog’s tail” or “Zeke” in “Zeke’s hat.” But when the noun is plural, people lose their footing. That’s understandable when you look at the apostrophes in “the children’s menu,” “the kids’ menu,” “women’s accessories” and “ladies’ accessories.”

All of those are correct, even though they seem inconsistent. The rule is simple. A plural ending with an S forms its possessive by adding an apostrophe only: the dogs’ tails, the hats’ bands. A plural ending with any other letter works just like a singular noun. Add apostrophe plus S to form the possessive: the deer’s migration, the men’s room.

Confusion of they’re and their. Remember our contraction discussion above? The same rule applies here: If you’re contracting two words, you use an apostrophe. So “they’re right” means “they are right.” Only if you want to show possession do you use the one with no apostrophe: their. “We rode in their car.” “They enjoyed their lunch.”

JUNE CASAGRANDE is author of “The Best Punctuation Book, Period.” She can be reached at [email protected].