20 More About Apostrophes
KEY CONCEPTS
An apostrophe is often used to replace missing numbers in a past decade, such as the ’80s to represent the 1980s.
An apostrophe can be used to form the plural of a single letter, such as advice to dot your i’s and cross your t’s.
This is the third and last chapter about apostrophes. We first looked at possessive apostrophes, and then we covered contractions. Now we’ll briefly study two other instances for using apostrophes.
You already know that apostrophes are sometimes used to replace letters in contractions, such as you’re for you are. With that in mind, here’s an opening question for you to apply that concept to numbers.
This was an example of how an apostrophe can be used when writing informally about a decade.
Next, let’s study one use for apostrophes that goes beyond contractions and possessives.
Additional examples related to the flip-card above would be advice to “mind your p’s and q’s” or “dot your i’s and cross your t’s.”
This exception for forming plurals of single letters is listed in The Associated Press Stylebook and several other writing style guides.
For the last flip-card question in this chapter, we’ll return to years.
If you need a comprehensive review, one section of the Purdue OWL website focuses specifically on apostrophes, or you can go straight to the OWL’s practice exercises on apostrophes.
To close our chapters on apostrophes, I’ll share my favorite AP Stylebook spelling entry, which is specific about correct placement of two apostrophes:
rock ‘n’ roll
Rock on with your apostrophes.
MORE PRACTICE FOR PROFICIENCY
Below are additional usage questions based on this chapter. These questions may help you study for course assignments or a proficiency exam.
(NOTE – The automated grading on the exercise above may seem different than a standard right/wrong format. It will still display your correct and incorrect responses, though. Don’t worry about your calculated score. Just focus on learning.)
WRITING EXERCISE
1. Compose your own sentence that uses the plural form of a single letter.
2. Compose your own sentence that uses a contraction for a decade.
3. In two tightly constructed sentences, explain your key takeaway from this chapter. Do not use any first-person pronouns (such as I, me, my or mine) in your writing.
