语言教学 | 普渡大学写作教学系列General Writing 82-Apostrophe & Hyphen

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The Apostrophe

The apostrophe has three uses:

1. To form possessives of nouns

2. To show the omission of letters

3. To indicate certain plurals of lowercase letters

Forming Possessives of Nouns

To see if you need to make a possessive, turn the phrase around and make it an "of the..." phrase. For example:

• the boy's hat = the hat of the boy

• three days' journey = journey of three days

If the noun after "of" is a building, an object, or a piece of furniture, then no apostrophe is needed!

room of the hotel = hotel room
door of the car = car door
leg of the table = table leg

Once you've determined whether you need to make a possessive, follow these rules to create one.

• add 's to the singular form of the word (even if it ends in -s):

  the owner's car
  James's hat (James' hat is also acceptable. For plural, proper nouns that are possessive, use an apostrophe after the 's': "The Eggleses' presentation was good." The Eggleses are a husband and wife consultant team.)

  NOTE: the generally accepted convention for most academic styles (including CMOS, APA, and MLA) is to add apostophe + s to the singular form of the word, even if it ends in "s." Non-academic styles, such as AP, suggest simply adding an apostrophe to the end of a word that ends in "s." Please check the style guide of whatever format you're using to make sure you're in line with their recommendations.

• add 's to the plural forms that do not end in -s:

  the children's game
  the geese's honking

• add ' to the end of plural nouns that end in -s:

  two cats' toys
  three friends' letters
  the countries' laws

• add 's to the end of compound words:

  my brother-in-law's money

• add 's to the last noun to show joint possession of an object:

  Todd and Anne's apartment

Showing omission of letters

Apostrophes are used in contractions. A contraction is a word (or set of numbers) in which one or more letters (or numbers) have been omitted. The apostrophe shows this omission. Contractions are common in speaking and in informal writing. To use an apostrophe to create a contraction, place an apostrophe where the omitted letter(s) would go. Here are some examples:

don't = do not
I'm = I am
he'll = he will
who's = who is
shouldn't = should not
didn't = did not
could've= could have (NOT "could of"!)
'60 = 1960

Forming plurals of lowercase letters

Apostrophes are used to form plurals of letters that appear in lowercase; here the rule appears to be more typographical than grammatical, e.g. "three ps" versus "three p's." To form the plural of a lowercase letter, place 's after the letter. There is no need for apostrophes indicating a plural on capitalized letters, numbers, and symbols (though keep in mind that some editors, teachers, and professors still prefer them). Here are some examples:

p's and q's = minding your p's and q's is a phrase believed to be taken from the early days of the printing press when letters were set in presses backwards so they would appear on the printed page correctly. Although the origins of this phrase are disputed, the expression was used commonly to mean, "Be careful, don't make a mistake." Today, the term also indicates maintaining politeness, possibly from "mind your pleases and thank-yous."

Nita's mother constantly stressed minding one's p's and q's.

three Macintosh G4s = three of the Macintosh model G4

There are three G4s currently used in the writing classroom.

many &s = many ampersands

That printed page has too many &s on it.

the 1960s = the years in decade from 1960 to 1969

The 1960s were a time of great social unrest.

The '60s were a time of great social unrest.

Don't use apostrophes for personal pronouns, the relative pronoun who, or for noun plurals.

Apostrophes should not be used with possessive pronouns because possessive pronouns already show possession—they don't need an apostrophe. His, her, its, my, yours, ours are all possessive pronouns. However, indefinite pronouns, such as one, anyone, other, no one, and anybody, can be made possessive. Here are some examples:

INCORRECT: his' book
CORRECT: his book
CORRECT: one's book
CORRECT: anybody's book

INCORRECT: Who's dog is this?
CORRECT: Whose dog is this?

INCORRECT: The group made it's decision.
CORRECT: The group made its decision.

(Note: Its and it's are not the same thing. It's is a contraction for "it is" and its is a possessive pronoun meaning "belonging to it." It's raining out = it is raining out. A simple way to remember this rule is the fact that you don't use an apostrophe for the possessive his or hers, so don't do it with its!)

INCORRECT: a friend of yours'
CORRECT: a friend of yours

INCORRECT: She waited for three hours' to get her ticket.
CORRECT: She waited for three hours to get her ticket.

Proofreading for apostrophes

A good time to proofread is when you have finished writing the paper. Try the following strategies to proofread for apostrophes:

• If you tend to leave out apostrophes, check every word that ends in -s or -es to see if it needs an apostrophe.

• If you put in too many apostrophes, check every apostrophe to see if you can justify it with a rule for using apostrophes.

Hyphen Use

Two words brought together as a compound may be written separately, written as one word, or connected by hyphens. For example, three modern dictionaries all have the same listings for the following compounds:

hair stylist
hairsplitter
hair-raiser

Another modern dictionary, however, lists hairstylist, not hair stylist. Compounding is obviously in a state of flux, and authorities do not always agree in all cases, but the uses of the hyphen offered here are generally agreed upon.

1. Use a hyphen to join two or more words serving as a single adjective before a noun:

   a one-way street
   chocolate-covered peanuts
   well-known author

   However, when compound modifiers come after a noun, they are not hyphenated:

   The peanuts were chocolate covered.
   The author was well known.

2. Use a hyphen with compound numbers:

   forty-six
   sixty-three
   Our much-loved teacher was sixty-three years old.

3. Use a hyphen to avoid confusion or an awkward combination of letters:

   re-sign a petition (vs. resign from a job)
   semi-independent (but semiconscious)
   shell-like (but childlike)

4. Use a hyphen with the prefixes ex- (meaning former), self-, all-; with the suffix -elect; between a prefix and a capitalized word; and with figures or letters:

   ex-husband
   self-assured
   mid-September
   all-inclusive
   mayor-elect
   anti-American
   T-shirt
   pre-Civil War
   mid-1980s

5. Use a hyphen to divide words at the end of a line if necessary, and make the break only between syllables:

   pref-er-ence
   sell-ing
   in-di-vid-u-al-ist

6. For line breaks, divide already-hyphenated words only at the hyphen:

   mass-
   produced
   self-
   conscious

7. For line breaks in words ending in -ing, if a single final consonant in the root word is doubled before the suffix, hyphenate between the consonants; otherwise, hyphenate at the suffix itself:

   plan-ning
   run-ning
   driv-ing
   call-ing

8. Never put the first or last letter of a word at the end or beginning of a line, and don't put two-letter suffixes at the beginning of a new line:

   lovely (Do not separate in a way which leaves ly beginning a new line.)
   eval-u-ate (Separate only on either side of the u; do not leave the initial e- at the end of a line.)

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