THE ENGLISH APOSTROPHE (')-1

Good morning / afternoon / evening everyone, depending on when you are reading this. Welcome back to the Daily Vitamin.

THE MAGIC LINE WAS A SUCCESS
Thanks to all of you who supported the Magic Line Walk to raise money for The San Joan de Déu Hospital and its different projects to help those in need. Your donations are greatly appreciated! We are happy because we reached our objective, and even a little more. It's not too late to donate. It doesn't have to be a lot. Every little bit counts. If you can donate 5€, 10€, 15€, 20€ or more euros, the hospital will be very grateful.

You can make a transfer directly to the Hospital at the following link: https://www.gestio.magiclinesjd.org/es/donar/1180

For more information about the Magic Line, you can go here: https://www.magiclinesjd.org/es/presentacion/que-es-la-magic-line/

Thank you for your collaboration! And now, back to the Daily Vitamin.

There is a lot of confusion about how to use the apostrophe (') in English. In a lot of commercial advertisements in Spain, companies incorrectly use English words with the apostrophe-s ('s). Today, and for the rest of the week, we'll review the main uses of the apostrophe in English.

The apostrophe (') is used for two main purposes:

1) To indicate POSSESSION.
2) To form CONTRACTIONS with the verb BE and Auxiliary verbs DO and HAVE and with MODAL VERBS (will, must, etc.).

Today we will look at possession, and tomorrow we will look at contractions with verbs.

POSSESSION
Remember that in English with people we don't normally use the structure THING of PERSON for possession. Instead we use PERSON'S THING:

Example 1
Matthew's book is on the table.

We don't say, ***the book of Matthew is on the table.*** Although this is a grammatically correct sentence, and it's understandable, it's not what native speakers normally say. 

Example 2
My brother's wedding is the 10th of July.

However, with objects we sometimes use the THING of THING structure:

Example 3
The roof of the house is very old and is in need of repair.

But speakers sometimes use the 's structure with objects.

Example 4
The car's tires are very old and need to be changed.

I should point out that native speakers don't always agree on the use of these different possessive structures with objects. The important thing is to use the 's structure with people.

If you have questions about the use of the apostrophe for possession in English, you can post your questions on one of our social media sites (Facebook or Twitter) and we will answer your questions as soon as possible.

Have a great day. All the best!