The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules (9 page)

In this group of words, the
or
follows the letter
w:

One anomaly is the word
worn
.

This group of words uses
ur:

One anomaly is the word
bury,
which is pronounced
berry
.

In
yr
words, when the
y
is followed by
r,
there are three possible sounds:

C
HAPTER 4

The Apostrophe

E
nglish is an extremely flexible language and has a number of advantages over most other languages. One of these advantages is the humble apostrophe. This tiny mark enables us to communicate faster and with less effort while still retaining clarity.

“Never use an apostrophe when a plural is intended.”

The apostrophe is used in the possessive and in contractions, and most native speakers would find it difficult to converse for even ten minutes without using a contraction, nor could they go half a day without using the possessive.

Many languages have no equivalent. For example in Spanish we must say
“the house of Mary,”
whereas in English we reduce these four words to only two and say
“Mary’s house.”
Similarly, in most languages we must say
“I will not,”
but in English we reduce this to
“I won’t.”

Spelling rule #1: The possessive apostrophe indicates ownership.
To use the possessive apostrophe simply add an apostrophe to the noun plus the letter s, then add the subject that is under discussion.

Words ending in
y
do not change the
y
to
i
.

Spelling rule #2: If the noun already ends in an
s
or if the noun is plural, the apostrophe is added after the
s
.

If the plural noun is a special word, such as
women
or
children
or
mice,
then the rule applies and the apostrophe must be placed before the
s
.

Pronouns such as
yours, ours, theirs,
and
its
do not use an apostrophe.

Spelling rule #3: The apostrophe is never used with regular plurals.

Note that there is often confusion between
it’s
and
its
. The apostrophe indicates a contraction so
It is a nice day
becomes
It’s a nice day
. The
its
without the apostrophe indicates possession:
The cat put its paw in its milk
.

If the object belongs to two or more persons, then the apostrophe and the
s
are used only with the final person mentioned.