Basic Apostrophe Use

Question

Everyone has a weak spot when it comes to certain uses of the apostrophe. For me, it's with regard to time.

Should it be "Last week's volume" or "Last weeks volume"?

Similarly, "Determine the projected population in ten years time", how would one use apostrophes there?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Hello, Brandy - and welcome to English Forums.

Last week's volume (or why worry about it? – 'the volume last week').

in ten years' time (or simply 'in ten years').

JohnParis · Answer

Dear Brandy *****,

What a quaint pseudonym. Welcome to the Forums.

The possessive case of nouns is indicated by attaching an http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apostrophe followed by an s to the end of a singular noun or a plural noun not ending in an s, or by adding an apostrophe to a plural noun ending in . In US usage, if a singular noun already ends in "s", an apostrophe is added, optionally followed by an .
Biblical http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/given_names ending in s may form their possessive by adding either an apostrophe alone or an apostrophe followed by an .
As a http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rule_of_thumb, if an is added to the noun when pronouncing the possessive, add an when writing the possessive. For example, in “the cat’s whiskers”, the possessive is pronounced like cat with an added, so the possessive is written using an apostrophe followed by an . In “the cats’ claws”, no s is added to cats when pronouncing the possessive, so only an apostrophe is added.
The same rule may be applied to names. Write James’s if you pronounce it as Jameses; write James’ if you pronounce it as James.

possessive added to the end of the noun
British: a singular noun, or a plural noun not ending in an "s"
US: a noun, singular or plural, that doesn't end in "s"
Most given names ’s
British: a plural noun ending in "s"
US: a noun, singular or plural that ends in "s"
Some given names ending in "s" ’

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:English_parts_of_speech

Brandy Balls · Answer

That's how I felt the apostrophes needed to be written, but I wanted to double check.

As for the re-phrasing. I work for a newspaper and we often have space issues on the front page etc, so we need to keep it short, sweet, and correctly punctuated.

Thanks for the answer. My knowledge of apostrophes is practically complete :-)

Basic Apostrophe Use

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