# Apostrophe
The apostrophe ( ' ) is a punctuation mark used in English chiefly to show possession, as in *the cat's meow*, and to mark omitted letters in contractions, as in *don't* for *do not*[1](https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/punctuation/apostrophes). It is one of the most frequently misused marks in written English, and its rules vary somewhat among style guides[4](https://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0479).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Main functions | Shows possession (possessives, sometimes called genitives) and marks omitted letters in contractions[1](https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/punctuation/apostrophes) |
| Etymology | From Greek *apostrophos*, "turning away", via Late Latin *apostrophus* and French *apostrophe*; the punctuation sense is recorded from the 1580s[3](https://www.etymonline.com/word/apostrophe) |
| Entry into English | Introduced by the mid sixteenth century as a printer's mark, "for the eye rather than for the ear"[2](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-language-and-linguistics/article/night-before-begd-ye-queenss-pardon-and-his-brothers-the-apostrophe-in-the-history-of-english/3AFFF461EAC85F085E5F49BAC68D32A4) |
| Standardisation | Its use was standardized during the 19th century[4](https://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0479) |
| Unicode characters | U+2019 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK is preferred in set text; U+0027 APOSTROPHE is the keyboard character; U+02BC MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE marks a letter, such as a glottal stop[5](https://unicode.org/versions/Unicode18.0.0/core-spec/chapter-6/) |
| Common error | Adding an apostrophe to make a plural ("greengrocers' apostrophes"), as in *CD's are obsolete*[4](https://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0479) • [6](https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/the-university/brand/style-guide/punctuation) |
## Possession
When the first of two consecutive nouns carries an apostrophe, the mark signals a relationship between the nouns. The relationship varies, but all such uses are known collectively as possessives and sometimes as genitives[1](https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/punctuation/apostrophes).
The placement follows the type of noun doing the possessing[1](https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/punctuation/apostrophes):
- **Singular nouns** take an apostrophe and *s*: *the committee's report*, *the bus's passengers*.
- **Plural nouns ending in s** take an apostrophe only: *both committees' reports*, *the Joneses' submission*.
- **Plural nouns not ending in s** take an apostrophe and *s*: *our children's education*, *the sheep's wool*.
- **Proper names ending in s** take an apostrophe and another *s* in Australian government style, even when the final *s* is not pronounced: *Burns's report*, *James's profession*, *Jesus's disciples*[1](https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/punctuation/apostrophes).
- **Joint possession** takes one apostrophe after the last noun only (*Smith and Miller's report*), while **individual possession** takes one after each noun (*Smith's and Miller's offices*)[1](https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/punctuation/apostrophes).
- **Compound nouns** place the apostrophe after the whole compound: *the attorney-general's speeches*, *my mother-in-law's dog*[1](https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/punctuation/apostrophes) • [6](https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/the-university/brand/style-guide/punctuation).
Style guides differ on singular names ending in *s*. MLA style adds *'s* (*Athens's history*, *Alexandre Dumas's novels*) while noting that some styles allow only the apostrophe (*Athens' history*)[7](https://style.mla.org/apostrophes-three-ways/). Oxford's guide suggests rewording the sentence if adding *'s* would make a name ending in *s* or *z* hard to pronounce[6](https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/the-university/brand/style-guide/punctuation).
Apostrophes also mark time expressions that can be paraphrased with *of*: *a week's holiday*, *three months' notice*[6](https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/the-university/brand/style-guide/punctuation). When a noun merely describes another noun rather than possessing it, as in *workers compensation* or *visitors book*, no apostrophe is used[1](https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/punctuation/apostrophes).
## Contractions
In a contraction, two words are joined into one shorter word and the apostrophe stands where letters have been left out: *do not* becomes *don't*, *it is* becomes *it's*, *cannot* becomes *can't*, and *will not* becomes *won't*[8](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/apostrophe). The apostrophe goes in the position the omitted letters would have occupied, not where the space between the original words fell[6](https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/the-university/brand/style-guide/punctuation).
Some contractions are ambiguous in writing. *'s* can stand for *is* or *has* (*She's seen that movie already*; *He's my brother*), and *'d* can stand for *had* or *would*[8](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/apostrophe). The possessive pronoun *its* takes no apostrophe; *it's* is a contraction of *it is* or *it has*[8](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/apostrophe) • [6](https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/the-university/brand/style-guide/punctuation) • [10](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/it-s-or-its).
## Plurals and exceptions
Style guides generally prohibit the apostrophe for plurals of nouns, abbreviations, numbers, and words not usually used as nouns: *CVs*, *the 1990s*, *two Johns*, *dos and don'ts*[6](https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/the-university/brand/style-guide/punctuation). The best-known exception is the plural of lowercase letters, where the apostrophe aids reading: *Mind your p's and q's*, *Accommodation has two c's and two m's*[7](https://style.mla.org/apostrophes-three-ways/). MLA style still omits it for grades and for abbreviations containing capital letters (*She got three As*; *people with MAs and PhDs*)[7](https://style.mla.org/apostrophes-three-ways/).
Misplaced apostrophes in plurals, especially on shop signs, are common enough to have a name, greengrocers' apostrophes, humorously misspelled as "greengrocers apostrophe's"[4](https://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0479).
## History
The word entered English in two senses. The rhetorical sense, "a turning aside of an orator in the course of a speech to address briefly some individual", is recorded from the 1530s; the punctuation sense, "mark indicating an omitted letter", from the 1580s. Both derive from French *apostrophe*, from [Late Latin](https://www.edgepedia.org/late-latin) *apostrophus*, from Greek *apostrophos* (prosoidia), "(the accent of) turning away", from *apostrephein*, "avert, turn away"[3](https://www.etymonline.com/word/apostrophe).
The mark itself was introduced into the English orthographic system by the mid sixteenth century as a printer's mark designed "for the eye rather than for the ear". Although some early sources derived it from the virgule, it is more plausibly a symbol of Greek and Latin provenance that English most likely borrowed from French and Italian, where it had wide circulation[2](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-language-and-linguistics/article/night-before-begd-ye-queenss-pardon-and-his-brothers-the-apostrophe-in-the-history-of-english/3AFFF461EAC85F085E5F49BAC68D32A4). Early English documents used it from the second half of the sixteenth century, first to mark elision, as in *th'onely* for *the only* and *o'man* for *woman*, with no consistency in whether the mark stood before or after the point of elision[2](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-language-and-linguistics/article/night-before-begd-ye-queenss-pardon-and-his-brothers-the-apostrophe-in-the-history-of-english/3AFFF461EAC85F085E5F49BAC68D32A4).
Early uses were broader than today's. Besides the Saxon genitive (*the woman's book*), verbal contractions (*you'll*, *you're*), and formulaic expressions (*o'clock*), early writers used the apostrophe for other cases of elision and for abbreviated words[2](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-language-and-linguistics/article/night-before-begd-ye-queenss-pardon-and-his-brothers-the-apostrophe-in-the-history-of-english/3AFFF461EAC85F085E5F49BAC68D32A4). In English, the mark often represented the loss of the *-e-* in the *-es* possessive ending, and by the 18th century it had been extended to all possessives, whether or not they had ever had an *-e-*[3](https://www.etymonline.com/word/apostrophe). Its use was standardized during the 19th century, yet the rules still trouble many writers, including literate speakers of English[4](https://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0479).
## Typography and computing
In Unicode, three distinct characters serve apostrophe-like roles. U+0027 APOSTROPHE, the straight vertical mark on most keyboards, is heavily overloaded: in ASCII it can represent several punctuation marks or a modifier letter. When text is set, U+2019 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK is preferred as the apostrophe, and it is identical in shape to a closing single quotation mark. Where the apostrophe functions as a letter, for example in transliterations marking a glottal stop, U+02BC MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE is preferred[5](https://unicode.org/versions/Unicode18.0.0/core-spec/chapter-6/).
Word processors commonly convert the typed U+0027 into a contextually chosen curly glyph, and this "smart quotes" feature cannot always tell an apostrophe from an opening single quotation mark. At the start of a word, as in *'70s* or *'til*, applications tend to supply an opening quote mark where a closing-shaped apostrophe is correct[9](https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Punctuation/faq0035.html). In almost all typefaces the apostrophe should look like a raised, non-inverted comma in the same typeface[9](https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Punctuation/faq0035.html).
## References
1. [Apostrophes, Australian Government Style Manual](https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/punctuation/apostrophes)
2. ["The night before beg'd ye queens's pardon and his brother's": the apostrophe in the history of English, English Language & Linguistics (Cambridge Core)](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-language-and-linguistics/article/night-before-begd-ye-queenss-pardon-and-his-brothers-the-apostrophe-in-the-history-of-english/3AFFF461EAC85F085E5F49BAC68D32A4)
3. [Apostrophe, Etymology, Origin & Meaning, Online Etymology Dictionary](https://www.etymonline.com/word/apostrophe)
4. ["Mind your p's and q's": or the peregrinations of an apostrophe in 17th Century English, arXiv](https://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0479)
5. [Chapter 6, The Unicode Standard, Version 18.0.0](https://unicode.org/versions/Unicode18.0.0/core-spec/chapter-6/)
6. [Punctuation, University of Oxford Style Guide](https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/the-university/brand/style-guide/punctuation)
7. [Apostrophes: One Mark, Three Ways, MLA Style Center](https://style.mla.org/apostrophes-three-ways/)
8. [Apostrophe ('), Cambridge Dictionary](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/apostrophe)
9. [Punctuation FAQ, The Chicago Manual of Style Online](https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Punctuation/faq0035.html)
10. [It’s or its ?](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/it-s-or-its)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Languages and linguistics › Writing and notation systems › Punctuation and orthographic marks*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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