Many writers, and I don’t mean specifically Xomby writers, seem to have lost the touch for properly used apostrophes in English. Is this apostrophe’s demise? Or should I rather say apostrophes demise?

Normally when feeling unsure about the use of a turn of phrase, you would go and look it up in Shakespeare. But the apostrophe is a migrant newly arrived, a fledgling of a mere 150 years’ use. Is it a wonder that even 50 per cent of teachers don’t use it correctly? But as I as a reader find it most annoying to have to puzzle out the meaning of a paragraph because there are no apostrophes or wrongly placed ones, I try as writer to use them correctly as much as possible.

If you stick to basics, it’s actually quite simple, once you memorized the rules. The word apostrophe is Greek in origin and translates to elision, i.e. leaving out something or turning away. That is the main point of the apostrophe then, to take the place of a letter being left out.

If we write: I don’t use apostrophes; then we have shortened do not to don’t, the apostrophe takes the place of the lost o. That is easy enough to follow. So when setting an apostrophe, always reason out with yourself which letter you left out, and you shouldn’t get too many wrong anymore.

The trouble usually starts when using the apostrophe to denominate possession. Everybody feels comfortable to state: It’s the boy’s bike; when referring to the bike of a boy. But somehow there is a fuse gone off in brains when boy’s suddenly is used as a plural. These are still boys, and I don’t see a letter being left out either, or do you?

Now if the boy’s name is James, it becomes: It’s James’ bike. The apostrophe is there to denominate possession. And it doesn’t take a second one to replace the lost s at the end either, one is quite enough. The same goes for plurals: These are the boys’ bikes; this quite clearly states that the bikes belong to several boys. Whereas: These are the boy’s bikes; means that several bikes belong to one boy.

To make it useable: Your first question when applying an apostrophe should be: Which letter did I leave out? If you didn’t leave a letter out or you just can’t answer the question, your second question should be: Does the object mentioned after the apostrophized word belong to that person or entity? If the question again is answered negative, then there shouldn’t be an apostrophe at all.

Maybe this will help to eliminate things like CD’s or DVD’s. I don’t know what belongs to a CD or a DVD, but the plural would be CDs and DVDs. If now you should feel confused enough, don’t read the next paragraphs.

There are uses of the apostrophe outside the rules. Please read the following three examples and then decide which one is correctly using the apostrophes: a) Dos and don’ts; b) Do’s and don’ts; c) Do’s and don’t’s.

According to the rules I stated above, a) is correct as these are plurals and don’t need any apostrophes. But quite frankly, when I was presented these three possibilities, I didn’t understand a) at all until I had read b). But b) is wrong not only because it’s not according to the rules by inserting the apostrophe in dos, it’s also inconsistent by not inserting it into don’t as well. As to c), there are certain language specialists who tend to declare c) the right choice by citing the phrase: Do you dot your i’s? Rather than writing: Do you dot your is?

I can’t really give a final answer to it. My mother taught me a), and I always struggled with the reading. Whereas b) somehow looks readable but not sensible. The spelling in c) looks a bit over the top to me, and the reference to i’s to me is incorrect, as i is a single letter and not a word.

But if you stick to the basics, that will help a lot. If you keep there, their, and they’re sorted at the same time, you’ll manage pretty everything in writing. Just remember not to use apostrophes as you would use garnish in a salad.