The continuous misuse of the apostrophe is now so widespread that it is almost universal. A misplaced apostrophe can mark you out as having an incomplete grasp of the written language just as much as an error in spelling. Worse, your computer spelling checker will not warn you of the most blatant apostrophe errors. Yet the underlying principles are easy to master. Basically, the main and correct use of the apostrophe is to indicate something left out.
Examples:
can’t for cannot, and shan’t for shall not: the apostrophe stands in place of the missing letter o in not;
Further correct examples:
Isn’t for is not;
It’s for it is.
Here we come to one of the most common errors! It’s always means it is, and should never be used for possession.
What do I mean by possession? For example: the mouse was very tiny and its tail was only half an inch long.
Its tail means the dog’s tail. People get confused because they see the apostrophe in dog’s and they think they have to put it into its as well. This is one of those idiocies in written English that is annoying and requires some explanation (see principles 2 and 3 below).
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