Apostrophes are used to indicate ownership with plural nouns, contractions and dates. Discover how the use of apostrophe changes when dealing with plural words with help from a certified tutor in this free video on punctuation in the English language. Expert: Paige Carrera Bio: Paige Carrera is a certified tutor for both Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. Filmmaker: Christopher Rokosz
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lol, Number five is incorrect.
You’d have thought they’d have researched this correctly!
@KevJJ888 too right
How if name with ending in S ex. Tess’s , Bless’s James’s , Charles’s,Mars’sThis is one tone. but if there is two sounds or tone ex. Venus’ – VE NUS+’, Marites’ -Ma ri tes +’, IF their is one tone with ending s it will be Tess’s – tess+ ‘s but if is 2 tone it will be Venus’ = Venus+’ JUST ASKING THANKS…
High Quality Video + easy style + subtitle + easy vocabulary = great teacher…thank you very very much.
Dr. Rebecca Elliott, in her book “Painless Grammar” (published by Barron’s), plainly and correctly teaches that 1980′s is incorrect. I remember being quite elated when I saw that comment in her text while teaching grammar one day. I had taught this for many years, but this was the first time that I had seen it confirmed in a textbook. 1990s would be correct, not 1990′s.
You moron. You don’t use apostrophes for dates or letters. That’s stupid. It’s “1990s” or “As”.
Unless you are referring to something that belongs to the year 1990 or you are referring to something that A is then you don’t use an apostrophe or I swear the apostrophe monster will eat your head.
@trebla02
It depends on how it is pronounced, but usually both are accepted. Often James’ is preferred to James’s but it is often regional. I think. Correct me if I’m wrong or check “Eats, Shoots and Leaves”
@Jabelles1 Unless the schedule belongs to the buses.
I agree with other posters that the use of the apostrophes in item 5 is incorrect.
I also notice that in items 3 and 5 the ellipses are incorrect: this punctuation mark should properly comprise 3 dots, not 4.
Please don’t post ‘educational’ items that are actually wrong.
Number 2 is wrong and number 5 is wrong.
@cymruisrael Unless you think that there is a word spelled “bu” that is pluralized to “bus”, then number 2 is correct. However, you’re right about number 5. Well, partly. I’m OK right with “A’s” since the letters constitute a completely different word without the apostrophe, thus potentially causing confusion. Such examples, however, are the exception to the rule. And this lady’s “1990′s” is not one of those exceptions. Would she have us abbreviate this to ’90′s, with duel apostrophes?
“You know one of the most confusing things in grammar is the apostrophe!” SO VERY TRUE! I always get confused with them. Point 2 was helpful, I didn’t know that, I thought whenever something ended with an s you just put an apostrophe on the end.
@sharapova4eva NO! Number 2 and 5 are clearly wrong! Stick to what you know sis.
) There is no such thing as bus’s! It’s supposed to be bus’! You hit the nail on that one. Gosh, if people want to post educational items can’t they at least make sure they’re correct? Forget all you just heard about Point 2! As for the dates and letters, the apostrophe isn’t supposed to be there as well as it’d turn the 1990s into an active thus requiring the need to indicate ownership! 
) Ask me instead!
@Myra1991JR Lol I think maybe the woman is right though cos I just read on some random website…
a) To show singular possession for a word ending in an s or s sound, use the apostrophe and another s e.g. the class’s opinion (one class)
b) To show plural possession of a word ending in an s or s sound, form the plural first; then immediately use the apostrophe e.g. the classes’ opinions.
Gosh I’m so confused lol.
@sharapova4eva Yeah, they’re still wrong. It should be the class’ opinion. The word ”class” already ends with an ‘s’ which is why another ‘s’ isn’t required! All you need is an apostrophe to indicate possession ”the class’ opninion! Picture is if you add an extra ‘s’ it would have to indicate one or more missing letters ”the class is opninion – WRONG, the class has opinion – WRONG! The apostrophe is what you’d call superfluous in this case! The second one is correct though!
)
@sharapova4eva What is all comes down is a lack of thorough research and a lack of logic! Learn not to trust things written on the Internet and go with common sense instead. If you wanna avoid causing confusion you might also wonder why does ”invisibility” have so many ”i”s? That wouldn’t be right so many i’s as the ‘i’ doesn’t have any possessions and is thus to either be put in quotaton marks (to keep peeps confusing it with ”Is”) It’s all about the context! There’s another new comment!
@Myra1991JR OK thank you for sending me into a state of confusion lol. But seriously I think both ways are right. I read on quite a few websites that both can be used, so you could say James’s dog or James’ dog. Oh and why wouldn’t a) be the classes opinion instead of the class’s opinion or the class’ opinion? Ugh I’m tempted to give up on stupid apostrophes!
@sharapova4eva Alright then.
) I am giving you up! LOL, just kidding, looks like I am gonna have to resort to that ”appalling” word eventually. 
Just do me a favor and stick to the one you used to think was correct. 
If you just say the classes opinion there wouldn’t be any coherent meaning behind those words as it’d just be two stand-alone words! The classes’ opinion is plural and the class’ opinion is singular. 
) How close are you to tossing your computer out the window? LOL!
@Myra1991JR OK I’ll do what you say since you’re the apostrophe expert lol. And thanks I get the classes thing now.
Yeah I do want to toss my computer out the window, if not that then my brain lol.
@sharapova4eva You hit the nail on the head with that one. If there is anything I got down cold it the use of apostrophes.
) You’re welcome about the classes! 
Actually I don’t approve of you tossing out either ”item” out the window as both your brain and your computer are imperative necessities to keep our sisterhood alive. 
)
Capitalize the pronoun “I”… for heaven’s sake, you’re not texting; you’re teaching grammar! And I agree with other comments that point out that the date and letter in #5 can be correct without apostrophes (there is some disagreement among experts about this, however).
Please stop using apostrophes to pluralize things! It’s “I got stung by bees.” NOT “I got stung by bee’s!”
@Jabelles1 -I agree that they are not needed in these, but as a teacher I would not take off points for this error because it’s accepted in many writings. I would not accept it, however, in other ways. For example, I would accept ” I grew up In the 1990′s,” but not “I have two sister’s.”
That is wrong for 1990s. Why would it have an apostrophe? It is not possessive and it is not a contraction. It should be written 1990s or he got 5 As.
5 is right