Contractions: another great, but sometimes tricky, use of apostrophes Apostrophes also have the wonderful — but sometimes butchered — ability to literally combine words.

Apostrophes are those little floating comma shapes that denote contractions and possessives, and that sometimes even make words plural. They’re tiny, they’re tricky, and yes, the way you use ...

And, much to Chairman Richards’ chagrin, it’s the same deal when it comes to apostrophes. With respect to contractions, Gibson laughs about the suggestion that confusion might arise if, for ...

Contractions. You can use apostrophes to show that you have omitted (left out) some letters when you are joining words together. For example, you can join the words ‘you’ and ‘are ...

Apostrophes can be used in a couple of ways. With contractions, use apostrophes to indicate that letters are missing. When two words are written in shortened form, use an apostrophe to show that ...

For possessives and some contractions, apostrophes work with the letter S: Bob’s hat. Bob’s here. Note how the apostrophe-plus-S combo has different functions in our Bob examples.

One of the first things new copy editors learn is that they should change the contraction 'til to the word till, or, in more formal contexts, until.

The English language would be better off without apostrophes. Yes, I know thats an extreme statement, and yes, I know its not likely ever to happen. But its true. Heres why. From our morning news ...

Contractions are two words that are joined together. An apostrophe shows that letters have been left out. Find out more with this Bitesize 1st level English and literacy guide.