The Apostrophe Police

I’m not the apostrophe police, people misuse it, and I point it out, that’s all.

I was out with my friends, and we were looking for places to eat in. We finally picked a cozy looking shop, and settled down. Then, the menu came. Instead of wondering what to order, I was flipping through the menu to check on the use of the apostrophe misuse. Reason being, on the front cover of the menu, this was printed in bold:

“Check out our special soup’s of the day”

I decided to put a stop to this misuse when it comes to apostrophe and educate everyone on how to use the apostrophe. There are 3 basic rules when using the apostrophe.

Rule #1:1.
They are used to denote a missing letter or letters, for example:

I can't instead of I cannot
I don't instead of I do not
it's instead of it is

Rule #2:2.
They are used to denote possession, for example:
the dog's bonethe company's logo
Jones's bakery (but Joneses' bakery if owned by more than one Jones)

... but please note that the possessive form of it does not take an apostrophe any more than ours, yours or hers dothe bone is in its mouth

... however, if there are two or more dogs, companies or Joneses in our example, the apostrophe comes after the 's':

the dogs' bones
the companies' logos
Joneses' bakeries

Rule #3:3.
Apostrophes are NEVER ever used to denote plurals! Common examples of such abuse (all seen in real life!) are:

Banana's for sale which of course should read Bananas for sale
Menu's printed to order which should read Menus printed to order
MOT's at this garage which should read MOTs at this garage
1000's of bargains here! which should read 1000s of bargains here!
New CD's just in! which should read New CDs just in!
Buy your Xmas tree's here! which should read Buy your Xmas trees here!

Hope this has been helpful for you. It has definitely been beneficial for me. So let’s stick to the rules, and try not to misuse the apostrophe in the future.

Source: The Apostrophe Protection Society