{"id":12,"date":"2006-11-01T21:09:41","date_gmt":"2006-11-02T03:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=12"},"modified":"2021-02-22T14:03:29","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T20:03:29","slug":"the-most-common-punctuation-error-of-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/apostrophes\/the-most-common-punctuation-error-of-all\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Common Punctuation Error of All"},"content":{"rendered":"

When asked what the most common punctuation error of all is in American English, I don\u2019t have to think hard. The “winning” mistake is the misuse of the apostrophe, especially with its\/it\u2019s<\/em>.<\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s get rid of a myth: There is no such thing as its\u2019<\/em>. Why? Because its\u2019<\/em> would be meaningless. If its’<\/em> existed, it would be indicating plural possession. First of all, it<\/em> is always singular. Second, its<\/em> without an apostrophe is the possessive form.
\nExample:<\/strong> The dog hurt its paw.<\/em><\/p>\n

The word it\u2019s<\/em> is a contraction for it is <\/em>or it has<\/em>.
\nExamples:<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s a shame that the dog hurt its paw.<\/em>
\nIt’s always been there.<\/em><\/p>\n

Apostrophes<\/em><\/h2>\n

Let’s look at a few more rules concerning this most common punctuation error.<\/p>\n

Rule:<\/strong> To show possession by one person, use an apostrophe and add an s<\/em>.
\nExamples:<\/strong>
\ngirl\u2019s hat<\/em> (one girl who owns a hat)
\ngirl\u2019s hats<\/em> (one girl who owns more than one hat)
\nwoman\u2019s dress<\/em> (one woman who owns a dress)
\nwoman\u2019s dresses<\/em> (one woman with more than one dress)<\/p>\n

Rule:<\/strong> To show plural possession, make the noun plural first; then add an apostrophe.
\nExamples:<\/strong>
\nThe girls\u2019 hats flew off in the wind.<\/em> (more than one girl, each with a hat)
\nThe women\u2019s dresses matched their shoes.<\/em> (more than one woman, each with matching shoes)<\/p>\n

Notice that women\u2019s<\/em> was not an exception. The noun was made plural first and then the apostrophe was added. The only difference is that the plural of woman<\/em> doesn\u2019t end in an s<\/em>.
\nExamples:<\/strong>
\none boy\u2019s book, two boys\u2019 books
\none man\u2019s jacket, two men\u2019s jackets
\none lass\u2019s hat, two lasses\u2019 hats<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When asked what the most common punctuation error of all is in American English, I don\u2019t have to think hard. The “winning” mistake is the misuse of the apostrophe, especially with its\/it\u2019s. First, let\u2019s get rid of a myth: There is no such thing as its\u2019. Why? Because its\u2019 would be meaningless. If its’ existed, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apostrophes"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}