The Apostrophe - Bow Valley College

1. (Whose, Who’s) coming?
2. (Its, It’s) Sandra.
3. (Whose, Who’s) coat is she wearing?
4. (It’s, Its) not mine, but I like (it’s, its) colour.
C. Using Apostrophes for Other Purposes
Note: The one function of punctuation is to clarify meaning. Some writers and
publishers omit apostrophes in the following cases as long as no possible
confusion of meaning results.
1. To form the plurals of letters.
Examples
a. Cross your t’s.
b. Learn your abc’s.
c. Who is going to teach our children the three R’s.
2. To form the plurals of dates and other figures:
Examples
a. It happened in the 1930’s.
b. I will need three 4 x 4’s to shore up this wall.
c. Here are two 5’s and two 10’s.
3. To form the plurals of words named as words.
Examples
a. His promises contain too many if’s, and’s, and but’s.
b. She didn’t like his thank-you’s.
c. They had said their good-by’s.
Quick Quiz 5