I was aware of Apostrophe (‘) the ground breaking album from Frank Zappa well before I started to write and delve into the rules of grammar. Rules, don’t you just hate that them, as Somerset Maughan said ‘There Are Three Rules For Writing A Novel. Unfortunately, No One Knows What They Are.’ Hopefully rules are made to be broken.
Let’s begin with everybody’s favourite IT’S or ITS in other words to apostrophe or not to apostrophe.
IT’S with an apostrophe.
The contracted form of ‘it is’ or ‘it has’ is it’s and is written with an apostrophe as shown in the following examples:
‘It's been a long time since we saw each other,’ she said. (it has)
‘Hurry up,’ he shouted, ‘it's a lovely day!’ (it is)
‘The train will arrive in five minutes if it's on time.’ (it is)
‘It's been waiting here for weeks!’ (it has)
ITS with no apostrophe
The possessive form of it is its, meaning ‘of it’ and is written without an apostrophe as shown in the following examples:
The apartment block was missing its doors and windows.
The dog had lost its collar.
Amsterdam is famous for its art galleries and museums.
The airline had cancelled its last flight to Dublin.
As Frank Zappa said, ‘The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe’
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