Knowra Apostrophe Apostrophe An apostrophe is a punctuation mark used chiefly to indicate possession or omitted letters in contractions. Its placement follows conventions that vary with grammatical form and style.
Possessive : A grammatical form that expresses ownership, association, or another relationship between nouns. Apostrophes mark many English possessives, with placement shaped by number and noun ending.
It's : A contraction of it is or it has, written with an apostrophe. It's contrasts with the possessive pronoun its, which has no apostrophe.
English possessive : An English noun construction that marks possession or association, often with apostrophe-s. This is the apostrophe's central grammatical use in many English sentences.
Greek apostrophe : An ancient Greek punctuation mark indicating that a vowel or syllable had been omitted. The English mark's name and early function trace back to this omission sign.
Contraction : A shortened word or word group formed by omitting sounds or letters. An apostrophe signals letters omitted when English words are contracted.
Quotation mark : A punctuation mark used to enclose quoted speech or text. Curved apostrophes resemble closing single quotation marks but serve different grammatical functions.
English contractions : Shortened English forms such as can't and they're, with apostrophes marking omitted letters. Contractions make omitted letters visible through apostrophe placement.
Aldus Manutius : A Venetian humanist and printer who founded the Aldine Press in the late fifteenth century. Aldine printing helped establish the apostrophe's use in European printed texts.
Plural : A grammatical number indicating more than one entity. Plural forms are usually apostrophe-free, despite a common error adding one to ordinary nouns.
Scare quotes : Quotation marks used to signal that a word or phrase is ironic, disputed, or unusual. Scare quotes use quotation marks, not apostrophes, despite similar shapes in some fonts.
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