The other day I walked by a secondhand store that had a big pile of used books out front. Taped above the stack was a sign that said the following:
Book’s 1$
Ugh. This made me sad, particularly so because they were selling books (not book’s), which are filled with words (not word’s).
I’m not sure how it happened, but the misuse of apostrophes is everywhere these days.
When I see this, I think “the omelette’s what?” The omelette’s price? The omelette’s ingredients?
Here’s a quick refresher course on how to use apostrophes:
Apostrophes denote possession or a contraction
If you want to denote a plural, just add an s
Note: Its vs. it’s is a special use case as I explained in my past blog post.
Note: Some English words such as cactus or fungus have plurals that don’t take an s (cacti, fungi), but this is the general rule.
I know grammar is a foreign language to many people, but it’s important to use apostrophes correctly in both your manuscript and your marketing materials if you want to be taken seriously as an author. It may seem like a small thing, but trust me, people notice. Just ask my friend Gloria!
-Maria