Quiz 45 · Apostrophes — The Talking Hands Series

First, the idea

An apostrophe is the small mark ' that sits high, at the top of the letters, like a comma lifted up. It has two jobs. The first job is to show that something belongs to someone. The second job is to stand in the place of letters that were left out when two words were pushed together into one. This page spends most of its time on the first job, because that is where most of the mistakes happen. The second job comes at the end.

Start with the first job. When something belongs to someone, the word for the owner takes a special form, called the possessive. In Marisol's apron, the word Marisol's is a possessive. It tells you whose apron it is. The apron belongs to Marisol.

The hand drawn at the top of this page is closed around a rolling pin, the wooden roller a baker uses to flatten dough. It is not pointing, and it is not waving. It is holding something, and the thing it holds is its own.

The apostrophe is a small hand that shows who holds something. It stands right after the word for the holder, the owner, and the thing being held comes next. Marisol's apron is the apron Marisol holds as hers: first Marisol, then the hand, then the apron. If nothing is being held, there is no hand.

So every apostrophe of this kind comes with two questions: who holds it, and what is held? The holder comes before the hand. The thing held comes after it, usually as the very next word.

Look at the name on the bakery's sign: Okafor's Bakery. Who holds it? Mr. Okafor. What is held? The bakery. The name of the business is a possessive. It means the bakery Mr. Okafor holds as his. Many shops in the city are named this way: the owner's name, then the hand, then the thing the owner holds.

Where exactly the hand goes depends on the holder's word. There is one way to get it right every time, and it has three steps. First, write the holder's word exactly as it is, for one owner or for more than one, and do not change it. Second, look at its last letter. Third, put the hand on, by the rules below.

One owner: add 's

When there is one owner, write the word, then add an apostrophe and an s.

the proofer's door · Daniela's keys · the oven's light

The proofer is the warm cabinet where shaped dough rises, and it has a door. There is one proofer, so write proofer, then add 's. The rule stays the same when the one owner's word already ends in s. A boss is one person, so the office is the boss's office: write boss, then add 's.

More than one owner, ending in s: add the hand alone

Most words for more than one already end in s: one baker, two bakers. When the owner is more than one, and the word already ends in that s, write the word first, s and all. Then add only the apostrophe, after the s.

the bakers' break room

All the bakers share the break room. Write the owner: bakers. It already ends in s. Put the hand after it: bakers'. There is no second s. The s that is already there does the job.

Notice what the place of the hand tells the reader. The baker's break room is a room that one baker holds. The bakers' break room is a room that all the bakers hold together. Both are correct English. Only one of them says what is true, and the test will ask you to choose that one. When two choices are both correct English, the test wants the one that says what the writer means. This series has a short way of saying that: legal is not best.

More than one owner, not ending in s: add 's

A few words for more than one do not end in s: child and children, man and men, woman and women, person and people. Follow the same three steps. Write the owner as it is: children. Look at the last letter. It is n, not s. So add 's, just as you would for one owner.

the children's menu

The common mistake here is childrens'. It puts the hand after an s that the word does not have. If you write the owner first, exactly as it is, that mistake cannot happen.

Nothing held: no hand

Most words that end in s are not possessives at all. They are plain plurals: words that only mean more than one, with nothing held. A plain plural takes no apostrophe.

two loaves · a dozen rolls · the 1990s

Ask the two questions. In a dozen rolls, are the rolls holding anything? No. They are just more than one roll, so there is no hand. Years work the same way. The 1990s are the ten years from 1990 to 1999. Nothing is being held, so there is no apostrophe.

This mistake is everywhere in the city, and the test uses it often. Hand-lettered signs in shop windows say Roll's 2 for $1 and Fresh Pie's Today. Everyone understands those signs, and they do their work. But on the test, and in any notice a stranger reads with a careful eye, a plain plural takes no hand. Quizzes 42 and 57 are where moving between the English of the window sign and the English of the test becomes a named strength.

Possessive pronouns need no hand

Some words already mean belonging all by themselves: his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs, and whose. They are called possessive pronouns. A pronoun is a word like he, it, or who that stands in for a noun, and a possessive pronoun is a pronoun that shows belonging. These words hold on their own, so they never take an apostrophe. Nobody writes hi's for his. In the same way, its means belonging to it, with no apostrophe, and whose means belonging to whom, with no apostrophe.

The proofer lost its heat overnight.

The heat belongs to the proofer. Its holds the heat the way his would, with no hand. Quiz 41 met its and it's as two words that sound alike. Here is the reason they are spelled differently: its is a possessive pronoun, like his, and it's belongs to the apostrophe's second job.

The second job: letters left out

The second job has nothing to do with holding, so the hand does not belong here. A contraction is two words pushed together into one, with some letters left out. The apostrophe stands exactly where the letters were left out.

do not → don't · we are → we're · have not → haven't · it is, it has → it's · who is, who has → who's

Look closely at don't. The o of not was left out, and the apostrophe stands in its place, between the n and the t. It does not stand where the two words meet. That is why do'nt is wrong: the apostrophe sits in a place where nothing was left out.

The check for a contraction is to say the two words. Read it's as it is or it has. Read who's as who is or who has. If the sentence still makes sense, the contraction is right. If it does not make sense, you want the possessive pronoun, its or whose.

It's almost six.

Say the two words: It is almost six. That makes sense, so the apostrophe is right.

The register jammed, and its drawer would not open.

Say the two words: and it is drawer would not open. That makes no sense. The drawer belongs to the register, so the word is the possessive pronoun, its, with no apostrophe.

Contractions are correct English. In a note to a coworker or a friendly letter, they are fine. In very formal writing, such as a letter to a city office, many writers spell out the two words instead.

On the test, apostrophes arrive as dropdowns in notices, signs, and letters, often with three forms of one word side by side: customer's, customers', customers. Before you choose, ask the two questions. Who holds it, and what is held? If something is held, write the holder exactly as it is and put on the hand. If nothing is held and no letters are missing, choose the word with no apostrophe at all.

Worked example — thinking out loud

Mr. Okafor is writing a notice for the front window. The bakery opened twenty years ago this fall. Here is the last line of his first draft, whole.

Okafors Bakery thanks all it's customer's for twenty good years.

There are three places to check: Okafors, it's, and customer's. Take them one at a time, from left to right.

First, Okafors. Is something held here? The next word is Bakery. Who holds the bakery? Mr. Okafor, one man. Write the holder exactly as he is: Okafor. He is one owner, so add 's. The name becomes Okafor's Bakery, the bakery Mr. Okafor holds.

Second, it's. An apostrophe is either a hand or a mark for missing letters, and it's is always the second kind. It always means it is or it has. Say the two words: thanks all it is customers. That makes no sense. So no letters are missing here. The customers are the bakery's customers, and the word that means belonging to it is the possessive pronoun, its, with no apostrophe.

Third, customer's. Ask the two questions. Who holds it, and what is held? Look at the word after customer's. It is for. The customers are not holding anything. They are the people being thanked, and there are many of them.

Here is the tempting path. Mr. Okafor sees the problem with the count: there are many customers, not one. So he moves the hand to after the s.

Okafor's Bakery thanks all its customers' for twenty good years.

That fixes the count and keeps the mistake. A hand after the s still says that the customers hold something, and the next word is still for. Moving the hand does not help when there is nothing for it to hold.

Why it fails, in one sentence: the place of the hand tells the reader how many owners there are, but the hand belongs on the word only if something is held.

The right path takes the hand away. Customers is a plain plural: more than one customer, nothing held.

Okafor's Bakery thanks all its customers for twenty good years.

Run the questions once more over the finished line. Okafor's: one holder, and the bakery is held. Its: a possessive pronoun, no hand needed. Customers: nothing held, no hand. Years: nothing held, no hand. The line is ready for the window.

☞ Behind you: Quiz 41 (words that sound alike, including its and it's; this page shows why they are spelled differently), Quiz 43 (commas), and Quiz 44 (semicolons and colons). Commas, semicolons, and colons are the other small marks the test asks you to put where they belong and take out where they do not. Ahead: Quiz 46 (capital letters, another small change to a word that tells the reader something) and Quiz 47 (transitions, the words that connect one sentence to the next). In plain words first: Punctuation: Start Here, Part 3.

Part B · The skill in the wild

Okafor's Bakery opened twenty years ago this fall. Mr. Okafor wrote this notice for the front window. Five decision points. At each dropdown, choose the version where every apostrophe is in its place: a hand where something is held, a mark where letters were left out, and no apostrophe where neither is true. At decision points 1 and 3, two of the versions are correct English. Choose the one that fits the facts in the notice.

OKAFOR'S BAKERY — Twenty Years

To our customers, from R. Okafor, owner

October 2026

1 [a. Twenty years ago this fall, I unlocked the door of Okafors' Bakery for the first time. / b. Twenty years ago this fall, I unlocked the door of Okafor's Bakery for the first time. / c. Twenty years ago this fall, I unlocked the door of Okafors Bakery for the first time.] I was the only baker then. I worked the ovens at night and the register in the morning, and I slept in the afternoons when I could.

2 [a. Since then, we have baked through twenty winters' of holiday pies and more snowstorms than I can count. / b. Since then, we have baked through twenty winter's of holiday pies and more snowstorms than I can count. / c. Since then, we have baked through twenty winters of holiday pies and more snowstorms than I can count.]

3 [a. We know many of our customers' orders by heart: / b. We know many of our customer's orders by heart: / c. We know many of our customers orders by heart:] two rye loaves for the nurse on her way home from the night shift, and four dozen rolls for the church's Sunday breakfast.

4 [a. Its' been twenty years, and some of you have been coming in for all of them. / b. Its been twenty years, and some of you have been coming in for all of them. / c. It's been twenty years, and some of you have been coming in for all of them.] Some of you first came in holding a parent's hand. Now you bring your own children, and their drawings of the bakery hang on the wall by the register.

5 [a. Thank you to our bakers, whose hands shape every loaf before the sun comes up, / b. Thank you to our bakers, who's hands shape every loaf before the sun comes up, / c. Thank you to our bakers, whos hands shape every loaf before the sun comes up,] and to our counter staff, who know most of you by name. Daniela Vega is our new assistant manager, and Ahmed Diallo is our newest night baker. Say hello to them both.

To mark the anniversary, every customer who buys a loaf during the week of October 19 gets a roll free. The children's drawings will stay up all month.

With thanks for twenty years,

R. Okafor

The key — and why the tempting answers tempt

Part A

1. C. Ahmed is one man, and the shift is his. Write the holder exactly as he is, Ahmed, then add 's. B tempts because it looks careful: it has both the s and the apostrophe. But a hand after the s is how more than one owner looks, so Ahmeds' would mean a shift held by several people named Ahmed. The name Ahmed does not end in s, and the hand stands after an s the name does not have. This is the near-miss. A has no hand, so nothing holds the shift; it reads as more than one Ahmed. D adds a second s after the hand, and that is not a form of any word.

2. D. Three drivers hold one spot together. Write the holder: drivers. It already ends in s, so add the hand alone, after the s. A tempts most, and it is correct English. The driver's spot is a spot that one driver holds. The facts say three drivers share it. Both A and D are legal; only D says what is true. Legal is not best. B has no hand, so nobody holds the spot. C adds an extra s after the s; when the word for more than one already ends in s, the hand goes on alone.

3. A. Women already means more than one, and it does not end in s. Write it as it is, women, then add 's. B is the most common mistake with these words. It puts the hand after an s that women does not have, and womens is not a word. C is correct English, and it tempts because it looks so ordinary: woman's means one woman's. But the stem says the choir is made up of the women of the church, many of them. Legal is not best. D has no hand, and womens is still not a word.

4. B. Loaves and rolls are plain plurals: more than one loaf, more than one roll. Ask who holds what. The word after loaves is and; the word after rolls is every. Nothing is held, so there is no hand. A is the shop-window sign, and it tempts because it looks so familiar; the city is full of signs like it. C moves the hand to after the s. That changes the count, but there is still nothing to hold. D fixes one word and not the other, which still carries a hand with nothing in it.

5. D. The first question asks who holds the apron, so it needs the possessive pronoun, whose, with no apostrophe. For the second, say the two words: who is closing tonight? That makes sense, so it is who's. The two words sound exactly alike, so reading aloud gives no help here. You have to say the two words and see whether the sentence still makes sense. A swaps them: say the first as who is apron is this, and it makes no sense. B uses whose twice, and whose closing tonight? treats the closing as a thing someone holds, leaving the question with no verb. C uses who's twice, which brings back who is apron.

6. A. The fan belongs to the walk-in, so the first blank needs the possessive pronoun, its, like his. For the second, say the two words: it is back down to 36 degrees. That makes sense, so it is it's. Its with no apostrophe looks wrong to many careful readers, because every other holder on this page carries a hand. Remember his: possessive pronouns hold on their own. B swaps the two. C and D each get one blank right and one wrong: C reads its back down, with no verb, and D reads it is fan is running.

Part B — the anniversary notice

1. b. The sentence says I unlocked: one man opened the bakery. Write the holder, Okafor, then add 's. This is the bakery Mr. Okafor holds. Option a is correct English for a bakery that the whole Okafor family holds together, and it tempts because family businesses are common in the city. But the notice says I, one owner. Legal is not best. Option c has no hand, so the name reads as several Okafors, and nobody holds the bakery.

2. c. Winters is a plain plural: twenty of them. The next word is of, and nothing is held. No hand. Option b is the shop-window mistake from Part A, item 4. Option a moves the hand to after the s, the same tempting path as in the worked example: it changes the count, and there is still nothing to hold.

3. a. The orders belong to many customers. Write the holder: customers. It already ends in s, so add the hand alone. Option b is correct English, but our customer's orders means the orders of one customer, so the sentence would say that one person places many orders, and the examples after the colon are two different customers. Legal is not best. Option c has no hand, so nothing holds the orders.

4. c. Say the two words: It has been twenty years. That makes sense, so this is the contraction it's, standing for it has. The apostrophe marks the missing letters, h and a. Option b is the possessive pronoun, and it tempts because it sounds exactly the same; read it as a possessive pronoun, and the sentence has nothing for its to hold. Option a, its', is not a word in any use.

5. a. The hands belong to the bakers, so the sentence needs the possessive pronoun, whose, with no apostrophe. Option b tempts for a good reason: the hands belong to someone, and on this page an apostrophe has meant belonging again and again. But in who's the apostrophe is doing its other job. Say the two words: who is hands shape every loaf. That makes no sense. Option c, whos, is not a word.