Apostrophes 📕

The apostrophe (') has two main uses in English.

1. Short forms (contractions)

The apostrophe shows that letters are missing.

Short forms are normal in speech, emails and messages. In very formal texts, use the long forms.

2. Possession: who owns something

Anna's car

my parents' house

See the article "Possessive 's".

Never use an apostrophe for a normal plural

✗ I bought two apple's.

✓ I bought two apples.

✗ The 1990's

✓ The 1990s

Its or it's?

It's cold. (it is)

The cat ate its food. (possessive, no apostrophe)