Today is International Apostrophe Day.
I’m serious. We celebrate apostrophes today, and all grammar nerds should be giddy. I certainly am.
What joy!
The apostrophe needs a special day because it’s so often abused through misuse and omission. Of course it is. No other punctuation mark must work as hard.
The period has one job, to declare “stop.” The comma has two jobs, to announce a pause and to separate items in a series. The semicolon also has two jobs, to signal a half stop, half pause and to separate items in a complex series.
But the apostrophe, that vertical eyelash of pixels or ink that floats above most other punctuation? It has three jobs.
It shows possession. “Gauger’s words.”
It stands in for omitted letters or numbers, as in contractions. “Gauger can’t not be weird. He was even weirder in the ’80s.”
And it marks some plurals. “Gauger has lost his p’s and q’s.”
A copy editor for the British publication the Guardian created International Apostrophe Day in 2011. We’re lucky to have it – to help end apostrophe abuse.
NOTE: Please consider joining the Apostrophe Protection Society. It’s real, with 5,000 members globally. Membership is free. You’ll receive an occasional newsletter – and win the esteem of grammar nerds everywhere.
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