The Most Misused and Abused Punctuation Mark
Rule #1: FORMING
POSSESSIVES
 SINGULAR NOUNS
 Add an ‘s to the end of
singular nouns
 The girl owns the book.
 The girl’s book
 The boy owns the dog.
 The boy’s dog
 The baby owns the toy.
 The baby’s toy
 The man owns the laptop.
 The man’s laptop
 The woman owns the car.
 The woman’s car
FORMING POSSESSIVES
 SINGULAR NOUNS (cont.)
 Add an ‘s to the end of
common singular nouns that
end in -s.
 Wes’s guitar
 Add only an ‘ to classical
and biblical names that
end in -s.
 Moses’ brother
 Hercules’ strength
 The bus’s tire is flat.
FORMING POSSESSIVES
 PLURAL NOUNS
 Add ONLY ‘ to the end of
plural nouns that already
end in -s or -es.
 The girls own the books.
 The girls’ books
 The boys own the dogs.
 The boys’ dogs
 The babies owns the toys.
 The babies’ toys
FORMING POSSESSIVES
 PLURAL NOUNS
 Add ‘s to the end of plural
nouns that do NOT end in
–s or –es.
 The men own the laptops.
 The men’s laptops.
 The women own the cars.
 The women’s cars.
FORMING POSSESSIVES
 COMPOUND NOUNS
 Add the appropriate ‘ OR ‘s
to the last word of a
compound noun.
 Johnson and Johnson’s baby
powder
 (last word is singular w/o an -s)
 The Red Cross’s volunteers.
 (last word is singular with an –s)
 Smith and Son’s Electronics.
 (last word singular – one son)
 Smith and Sons’ Electronics.
 (last word is plural – several sons)
 My father-in-law’s new boat.
 (hyphenated compound noun)
 King George III’s army
 (titles of rulers and leaders)
 The Chief Justice’s decision
 (titles of rulers and leaders)
FORMING POSSESSIVES
 COMPOUND NOUNS
 Who possesses the item?
 JOINT OWNERSHIP
 Will and Mary’s dogs are
very well behaved.

They own the dogs together.
 Susan, Marie, and Alice’s
paper is finished.

One paper they worked on as
a group.
 INDIVIDUAL OWNERSHIP
 Will’s and Mary’s dogs are
very well behaved.

They each own dogs.
 Susan’s, Marie’s, and Alice’s
papers are finished.

They each wrote papers.
FORMING POSSESSIVES
 POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
 Do NOT use an apostrophe with the possessive forms of
personal pronouns.






his
hers
its
ours
yours
theirs
his old car is blue
that hobby of hers is expensive
its tail is injured
that house of ours needs a new coat of paint
that paper of yours needs revision
that project of theirs is perfect
FORMING POSSESSIVES
 POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
 DO use an ‘s with indefinite pronouns
 Nobody’s turn
 One’s homework
 Everybody’s friend
 Somebody’s cell phone
 Each other’s backpacks
 One another’s calculators
POSSESSIVES OR NOT?
 WHOSE vs. WHO’S
 ITS vs. IT’S
 WHOSE IS POSSESSIVE
 Whose homes were damaged
 ITS IS POSSESSIVE
 Its tremors were felt many
in the quake?
 WHO’S IS A CONTRACTION
FOR WHO IS
 Who’s going to give money to
the Help for Haiti charity?
miles away.
 IT’S IS A CONTRACTION
FOR IT IS.
 It’s the site of a terrible
earthquake.
POSSESSIVES OR NOT?
 YOUR vs. YOU’RE
 YOUR IS POSSESSIVE
 Your homework is finished.
 YOU’RE IS A CONTRACTION
FOR YOU ARE
 You‘re going to finish your
homework.
Rule #2: FORMING
CONTRACTIONS
CONTRACTIONS WITH VERBS
The most common type of contraction is formed by removing a letter(s)
from a verb and replacing the missing letter(s) with an apostrophe.
cannot
should not
were not
will not
she will
we shall
he would
they would
we have
they have
I am
you are
she is
Michael is
she has
it has
can’t
shouldn’t
weren’t
won’t
she’ll
we’ll
he’d
they’d
we’ve
they’ve
I’m
you’re
she’s
Michael’s
she’s
it’s
SPECIAL CONTRACTIONS
 NUMBERS
 The class of ’03
 The blizzard of ’98
 SURNAMES
 O’Sullivan
 d’Angelo
 POETRY
 e’en (for even)
 o’er (for over)
 ‘tis (for it is)
 DIALOGUE
 Don’ you be afoolin’ me.
 ‘Tis a long way you’ll have
to be goin’.
APOSTROPHE ABUSE
APOSTROPHE ABUSE
APOSTROPHE ABUSE
APOSTROPHE ABUSE
APOSTROPHE ABUSE
APOSTROPHE ABUSE