L
ike many of his neighbours in the sleepy small town of Anywhere, Bob was
puzzled by the mysterious word its. When should he use an apostrophe? Bob
was known as the best writer in town, and he dreaded everyone finding out his
shameful secret.
Bob did know that apostrophes could do two things:
1. Show the reader that two words have been put together and letters
have been removed.
2. Show the reader that an object is being possessed by someone or
something.
So it made sense to Bob that people might write things like Bob’s a really smart
guy. (If they only knew!)
Bob understood that Bob is could be contracted into Bob’s, with the apostrophe
showing that there were missing letters.
Bob was also familiar with I always go to Bob’s house when I need some advice
about apostrophes. (Oh, the mounting pressure!)
Since Bob owned his house, it made sense to write Bob’s house.
Bob was comfortable using apostrophes with almost any noun for the two
situations. But then there were those exceptions he just didn’t understand: it, you,
and they. He wasn’t comfortable deceiving his friends into believing he was a
punctuation expert. He needed to figure this out. Maybe tonight he would finally
master it.
Nancy’s coming over here tomorrow for apostrophe advice, Bob thought, and
I’m worried about whether I have this right. Ha! The dog’s barking. It’s happening
again. I must find out who is helping me!