Apostrophes
Native speakers' problems with apostrophes
One aspect of English that causes problems for many native speakers is apostrophes. Deciding when they are needed and where to put them is not always so easy. It is clear to most educated native speakers that the following sentences contain incorrect apostrophes:
- Orange's for sale at half price! (Sign in a fruit shop window)
- Where's the dog? Its time for it's walk.
But there are many situations when things are not so straightforward. For example, when referring to parts of this ESL website, should I refer to the Parents website or Parents' website ? (I choose to omit the apostrophe.)
More examples of native-speaker apostrophe errors.
English learners' problems with apostrophes
These articles, however, are concerned with the particular problems faced by non-native speakers in learning English. So I want to concentrate on a different aspect of the apostrophe problem. Namely the use of apostrophes to denote possession or relationship in phrases such as the boy's mother, my dog's basket, the president's jacket.
These examples are not very difficult, but what about phrases such as the car's door? Is this correct, or should we say the door of the car, or simply the car door?
The native speaker doesn't usually have to worry about questions like these. She intuitively picks the most natural use for the particular meaning she wants to convey. So in this case she would probably say The car door is not shut, rather than The car's door is not shut. In other words, no possessive apostrophe is used.
Conversely, she will never say That's my father car, and is much more likely to say That's my father's car than That's the car of my father.
Furthermore, she will almost certainly likely use the possessive 'of' instead of an apostrophe in long possessives. For example: The car of the woman who lives down the street, and not The woman who lives down the street's car.
Quiz
Test your knowledge of this tricky area of English by answering these questions:
1. Which of the phrases in the following pairs is the more likely choice?
- John's computer / the computer of John
- the cover of the book / the book's cover
- the corner of the page / the page's corner
- John's computer / the computer of John
- The cover of the book / the book's cover (both possible)
- The corner of the page / the page's corner
2. Both of the following phrases are possible, but the second one is ambiguous. Why?
- - the teacher's praise / the praise of the teacher
- The praise of the teacher could mean both that the teacher was doing the praising and that she was the one being praised.
3. Both of the phrases in the following pairs are possible, but they have slightly different meanings. In what way?
- she's a friend of my sister / she's my sister's friend
- a child's jacket / the jacket of a child
- She's a friend of my sister implies that your sister has more than one friend. She's my sister's friend could be understood as meaning that she is the only friend of your sister.
- A child's jacket is a jacket that has been made for a child. The jacket of a child refers to a jacket belonging to a child.
4. Which one(s) in each of the following sets of phrases is more usual?
- goat milk / goat's milk / goatmilk
- horse meat / horsemeat / horse's meat
- a twenty dollars bill / a twenty dollar bill / a twenty dollar's bill / a twenty dollars' bill
- John is at the barbers. / John is at the barber's.
- The father of Anna is a teacher. / Anna's father is a teacher.
- Have you seen Bob's dog? / Have you seen the dog of Bob?
- goat milk / goat's milk / goatmilk
- horse meat / horsemeat / horse's meat
- a twenty dollars bill / a twenty dollar bill / a twenty dollar's bill / a twenty dollars' bill
- John is at the barbers. / John is at the barber's.
- The father of Anna is a teacher. / Anna's father is a teacher.
- Have you seen Bob's dog? / Have you seen the dog of Bob?
More on apostrophes
There are several interactive quizzes on apostrophes elsewhere on this site. You can find them in the Writing drop-down list on the Language Skills index page.
Here is another page about apostrophes, which includes information about apostrophes in contractions A contraction is the word that results when two words are joined together with an apostrophe.
For example, the contraction of do not is don't, and the contraction of she is is she's. . And on the video lessons index are links to three interactive lessons on the various uses of apostrophes.