Apostrophes Made Simple

The other day I noticed an ad from an editorial service that began “Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there.” Cringe. I’ve seen this error more and more lately, so I thought I’d rerun an article I wrote several years ago.

An Apostrophe Has Two Uses

It shows possession. Something belongs to someone or something.

The man’s hat. The dog’s leash. My biggest trouble-spot with this is dealing with plurals. There’s a difference (as my crit partner loves to point out) between the Detective’s...