I’m always confused when and when not to us an apostrophe with a “s”

Only (and always) use an apostrophe when it's a contraction, or when denoting possession. Your first example, "pets" is plural, so no apostrophe. Second example, the cat belongs to Jennifer, so yes apostrophe. Same with Joey's coffee shop. When the possession belongs to a plural noun (or when the noun already contains an "s"), add the apostrophe after the s. For example, "Jennifer's cats' beds" (Jennifer has multiple cats), or "Louis' cat" (Louis has a cat).

Plural - no. Possessive - yes. eg. Jennifer’s cats. Jennifer’s is possessive, cats is plural.

You seem to have it twisted 180°. It's a possessive apostrophe, so Jennifer's Cat, Joey's shop, Michael's bike, whoever's whatever. Plurals go without an apostrophe, so pets, shops, cups of coffee. An exception worth memorizing is it's and its. There the possessive has no apostrophe (that is its pecularity). "It's" is a contraction of "it is". I will say, lots of native speakers get confused about apostrophes. You can probably just chuck them in whenever you want, or ignore them entirely, and people will understand you. They may think you're uneducated, but they'd understand you.

You use an apostrophe in 2 scenarios: 1. To mark a contraction. Such as: it is -> it’s 2. To mark possession. Such as: the pencil belonging to Mark -> Mark’s pencil You do not use an apostrophe when marking plurality.

Basically: \- You do NOT need an apostrophe when the S indicates a plural. \-You DO need an apostrophe when the S indicates ownership. It can get a bit intricate when you are indicating both or the word naturally ends in a S. But look at your examples: Your pets are always... - pets is plural, no apostrophe needed Jennifer’s cat is very sick today - not plural, the cat belongs to Jennifer, apostrophe needed. This being English there are exceptions. One being "its" vs "it's" : "it's" is a contraction of "it is" so "its" is used to imply ownership. "That cat, it's annoying, its tail is in my soup"

If it’s just a plural, no apostrophe. > “Look at the dogs” “Alarms don’t sound like that.” “Hear the beats?” If it’s to denote ownership, use apostrophe. > “Tony’s dog” “Tony’s dog’s collar” “Tony’s dog’s collar’s spikes” And contractions with “is” > “It’s” = “It is”. “That’s” = “That is”. The exception is for “its”. You don’t use an apostrophe for ownership with “it”. Only contraction > “It’s a nice car but it has its problems” One more thing, if a word ends in “S” (including plurals) we sometimes don’t repeat the “S” for possession. We simply put an apostrophe at the end. > “Tony has two dogs. He removed the dogs’ collars”

Apostrophes indicate possession. (Or contractions, but I’m not going to go into that.) For your first example, “your pets are…” the s here indicates more than one pet. An example with “pet’s” would be “Make sure your pet’s nails are trimmed regularly.” This indicates the nails belong to one pet. For your second example, we use “Jennifer’s” to indicate it is a cat belonging to Jennifer. “Jennifer’s cat.” Whose cat? Jennifer’s. An example with “Jennifers” would indicate there’s more than one gal named Jennifer. “There are five Jennifers in my class.” “Joey’s coffee shop” - you would use an apostrophe here because it’s a coffee shop belonging to Joey. Whose coffee shop? Joey’s. Now something a little tricky: plural and possessive. “I’m going to my parents’ house for dinner today.” I’m going to a house belonging to both of my parents. Whose house? My parents’ house. My parents own the house.

The apostrophe is like a leash. It lies in the hand of the owner. Does the cat own Jennifer? No. Jennifer owns the cat. So it is Jennifer's cat. Plural words do not get an apostrophe. A leash can only hold one thing at a time!

So many others have already told you the correct information, but I just want to thank you for asking about this. The overuse of incorrect apostrophes is one of my biggest grammatical pet peeves and it is RAMPANT among native speakers.

Appstrophes in English are NEVER used to pluralise. They are used for two purposes in English. 1) They are used in contractions (e.g., cannot = can't). This includes some cases before an s, usually where is becomes 's, but also in some cases where does comes 's or has becomes 's. 2) They are used to indicate possession. e.g. this is the doctor's car. These are the doctors' cars.

There is one technicality that they made to make things difficult:  if a pronoun has possession, don't use an apostrophe (there might be an exception to this, but I'm unaware of any).  For example: hers (not her's). Its, not "it's", whose (not who's), and so on. 

Apostrophes represent deleted sounds, so since the word He's is derived from He-Is there's a apostrophe to represent the lost I sound, this is why its Don't not Do'nt, as the apostrophe represents the deleted O not that it's a 'contraction' possessives have apostrophes cuz the suffix use to be -es instead of -s so the apostrophe reps the deleted E So since they basicly exist to pretend English hasnt evolved, there's no modern logic to the presence of apostrophes (sry). the good news is that sine they donn't serve any practical function, you don't have to worry about them TOO MUCH, tho some folks'll be bitchy about it, especially in professional settings, so don't disregard them entirely.

https://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif Very helpful, if a bit grumpy, Guide to the Apostrophe

Plurals don’t generally need an apostrophe. Apostrophes are used for possession. So, “Jennifer’s cat” and “Joey’s coffee shop,” but “your pets.” For nouns that end in “s,” we usually just add an apostrophe. For example, “Marcus’ bagels.” That’s still possession. Plural nouns ending in “s” can also be possessors, and they work the same way as nouns ending in “s.” For example, “the animals’ fur” (multiple animals), but “the animal’s fur” (one animal). The only other case where you’d need an apostrophe is for contractions (“Jennifer’s a nice person”).

For every noun that is singular, you should add the apostrophe and the *s* both to show possession and to show contraction with the word *is.* * The cat's tail is long. * The cat's walking slowly. Any plural noun that ends with an *s* should only get an apostrophe for possession. There is no concern for contraction with *is* because you would be using the plural form (*are, were,* etc.). * The cats' tails are long. Any plural proper noun should get both an apostrophe and an *s* for possession: * Do you know Ned Flanders? The Flanders's house is bigger than the Simpsons' house The word *it* is the one that messes this all up. *It* only uses and apostrophe and letter *s* for contraction: * It's raining today Strangely, *it* is the only word in English that simply adds *s* without an apostrophe for possession: * Look at that cat. It's waving ***its*** tail. There's no good reason for this. There are several outdated reasons related to how pronouns were used in German as English evolved and borrowed from it centuries ago. If I were elected President, my first executive order would be to declare that *it's* can indicate possession *and* contraction.

Apostrophe is for possessive. - My sister's dog. The confusion comes from it being also used to abbreviate "is". - My sister's away for the week. That's the two places where 's is used. Plural never uses an apostrophe.

If it's not possessive, you don't use an apostrophe.

With plurals, you never use an apostrophe. • There are multiple Jennifers in my class, and only one has a cat. With possessives, you always use an apostrophe. • This is Jennifer's cat. With possessives of plurals, you use an apostrophe after the s. • This is the Smiths' cat. With possessives of singular nouns that already end in an s, you put an apostrophe after the s and then another s, UNLESS the singular is the common name of a historical person. Though barely any natives follow this rule to begin with. • This is James's cat. BUT • This tale is about Jesus' life. The only exception to this is that when you use the possessive of the pronoun "it", it becomes "its" without apostrophe, not "it's".

Plurals: no apostrophe e.g. "My dogs are in the park." Possessive*: 's e.g. "My dog's collar is red." Contraction of is/has: 's e.g. "My dog's run away." Plural and possessive: s' e.g. "My dogs' tails are black." * Do not use with pronouns

's is used for a posessive or where the word "is" is contracted (like that's instead of that is). The ' stands in for the i that is dropped in that case. Plurals don't use an apostrophe, though it's common to see people incorrectly use one online. In possessives, the ' stands in for a letter as well, but one that is no longer ever written or spoken as it is no longer part of the language. If you're curious it's the letter e which comes from the masculine genitive noun case ending -es in Old English (but you don't need to remember that).

An apostrophe *never* indicates plural, always either an “s” or “es” >There is one cat and one couch. There are many cats and many couches. Possession *always* uses an apostrophe, whether the possessor is singular or plural. Singular is ‘s (even if the word ends with s); plural would be s’ >The bed that belongs to the cat. The cat’s bed. >The beds that belong to many cats. The cats’ beds. >The wheels of the bus. The bus’s wheels. >The wheels of the many buses. The buses’ wheels.

Apostrophes **NEVER** indicate a plural. Usually an s or an es is all you need (unless the word ends in a y, then it changes to an ies) 1 hat, 2 hat**s** 1 church, 2 church**es** 1 city, 2 cit**ies** Apostrophes don’t make words plural. ~~hat’s~~ ~~church’s~~ ~~city’s~~ It’s a very common error. Please do not get confused by people and their bad grammar and spelling. The only case when one might use an apostrophe for a plural is when it would be confusing without one, like for an acronym with a series of letters: “John has 3 PhD’s.” The sentence would be correct without the apostrophe: “John has 3 PhDs.” but some people choose to put the apostrophe there as a stylistic choice to help mitigate confusion. Sometimes you might use an apostrophe if you’re talking about letters: “I am working on my handwriting and today I’m practicing my R’s and S’s.” Again, the apostrophe is not strictly needed here, but “…Rs and Ss.” might not look right to the writer and so they choose to use the apostrophe to add a bit of clarity. Apostrophes are also used for letters or numbers that are omitted That is why “I grew up in the ‘90s” is correct. ~~”I grew up in the 90’s.”~~ is not correct. The apostrophe shows that the 19 in 1990s was omitted. ‘90s Contractions are another clear example. They + are = they’re I + am = I’m Could + have = could’ve Apostrophes are used to show possession. Sam’s hat. Sally’s house. Mary’s mother. Keep in mind though that possessive pronouns do **not** use apostrophes. This is **our** house. This house is **ours**. Those are **her** shoes. The shoes are **hers**. That is **his** car. The car is **his**. Now let’s (let+us) move on to a huge source of confusion for a lot of people **ITS vs. IT’S** ITS is very confusing to people. And I understand why. There are two ways to write this word: it’s and its It’s will **always** be a contraction of it + is “It’s hot outside.” or it + has “It’s been a long time since I last saw you.” It’s is always a contraction. 100% of the time. (I have to mention, if you were reading the Stephen King book *IT*, where “It” is the name of a character and therefor a proper noun, “It’s” can be possessive only for that character. “It’s ^(referring the scary spider clown monster called IT) hands have sharp claws.” This is the only time where this exception will apply.) **Its** without the apostrophe is a **posessive pronoun** just like her, his, your, our, etc. But when you understand that “its” is a possessive pronoun and **not** a contraction, you will understand that it is consistent with the other posessive pronouns. His does not have an apostrophe. Her, your, their, etc. don’t have apostrophes. Does that help at all?

Jennifer's cats love their cat treats. Give the cats their medications. It's (contraction of it is) time for the cats' medications. Give the cat its (possessive, no apostrophe) medication. And oh, my dear, this is a widespread gap in people's punctuation knowledge, and you've asked! Thank you! (Advanced: yes, no one asked: Hemings, plural: The Hemingses of Monticello; Happy Holidays from the Smiths; even better, Happy Holidays from the Smith family... somebody stop me...!))

One thing I don't think anyone else has caught: you should say "an s" not "a s". Whether you use a or an is dictated by the initial sound of what comes after the article. Since the name of the letter S is "ess", we write and say "an s". This also goes for many other consonants. One reason we don't say "a s" is because it requires a glottal stop between the words, and on English we don't want to do that unless we really have to. Native speakers make this mistake too, but mostly children. Interestingly enough, it's becoming less of a mistake though. Even the president has done it in [speech!](https://youtu.be/nCe7Fj8-ZnQ?si=3_oPVVcp7dG0k5vc) (Sidenote: the channel I linked is an excellent resource for pronunciation if you're interested)

An apostrophe signals ownership or possession. You will tend to get singular or plural possession. For example ‘Jane’s cat went to the vet’. In this instance, Jane is one person so there is an apostrophe after Jane’s name and before the s. For plural possession, the ‘ is placed after the s. For example ‘the cats’ toys’. In this example, this refers to the toys of a group of cats. I hope this helps. EDIT: With reference to your first example of ‘Your pets are going to have a great time at day care’ no ‘ is needed for pets as this would signify the pets owning or possessing something which would make no sense here.

1. A specific person/thing's possessive ("Alice's dog" but not his/its). 2. When it's contracting "+ is" or "+ has" ("Bob's your uncle"). If you see it to make a plural, that is just someone doing it wrong. (And if your family name is Jones and your mom puts a sign on your front door saying "The Jone's" like mine did, you're right to feel shame and never invite any of your friends over.)

I blame the proliferation of acronyms and autocorrect.

First rule, if you don't know if there should be one, don't use one. Maybe it's just me, but "Jennifers cats" bothers me way less than "Jennifer's cat's" or, god forbid, "Jennifers cat's"

I just created an imaginary hockey team. Every one of the 6 players is named David. There are 6 Davids. They had a discussion on what to name the team, and the Davids’ unanimous decision was to name the team The Davids.

THANK YOU! For bringing this up. This drives me crazy. Apostrophes are only for replacing missing letters in a contraction or indicating possession. They are NEVER used to show plural. They are not used in the middle of a verb either. (He sees the door.)

Some more tips: we have the plural suffix *-s* and the possessive suffix *-'s,* but you can only attach one at a time onto a word. This is why saying things like "kids's" is wrong. "Kids" and "kid's" are pronounced exactly the same. If a word is plural, we write an apostrophe after it. We pronounce the entire thing the same as the plural alone. Kid-> kids -> kids'. If a plural is irregular, we can add the *-'s* because there isn't an *-s* suffix already present. People -> people's. If a word naturally ends in an S, we treat it just like any other singular word. Jesus, Jesuses, Jesus's. If a word is naturally plural, like a name, we treat it just like any other singular word. John Winters, the Winterses, the Winters's.

**When to use an apostrophe:** -When someone/something possesses or owns something Ex. "This is the kid's bedroom." (The bedroom belongs to one kid) "This is the kids' bedroom." (The bedroom belongs to multiple kids) -When forming a contraction: Ex. "It's (it is) a good day." "When's (when is) the party?" "Who's (who is) at the door?" **When not to use an apostrophe:** -When a pronoun possesses or owns something Ex. "This is his bedroom." "This is its toy." "Whose pen is this?" -When forming a plural Ex. "There are bats in the attic."

If you are talking about Jennifer owning a cat, it is Jennifer's cat. But if there are multiple people named Jennifer, you would write something like Jennifers, like "Jennifers always seem to have cats."

I keep a coin at my desk to flip

You use apostrophes for possession, and you don't use it for plurality. So it would be Jennifer's cats, as it's cats (plural) that Jennifer owns (possession) (Edit: only exception for possession is "its", as "it's" is the shortened form of "it is") I know, this wasn't in your question, but it relates to the topic, so... For plural possessives, you write the apostrophe, but AFTER the s (for example, the cats' toy, meaning the toy owned by multiple cats) For names ending with s, it depends on what English you're learning, IIRC in American English they tend to do the same as with plural possessives (ie. James' cat), but in British English some people write another s after (ie. James's cat)

Apostrophe is used to show possessive or ownership. You saying Jennifers doesn’t make sense because that s means there is more than one Jennifer when that’s not the case.

An apostrophe is never used to indicate plural. Many native English speakers make this mistake too. It is only used to indicate possessive or to indicate a contraction In your examples you have the apostrophe use backwards essentially!

There are a few different possibilities, so I’ll try to explain them all: 1- If it is only plural, add a single S with no apostrophe. 2- If it is a contraction with the word ‘is’ (e.g. there is), use an apostrophe. There’s a storm coming. Dylan’s going to the park. 3- If it is a single possessive, use an apostrophe. Sarah’s car and Magnitech’s comment. 4- If it is a possessive, but the subject already ends with an ‘S’, either add a single apostrophe after the S (Miles’ car, the dogs’ tails) in British English or another apostrophe S in American English (Miles’s car, the dogs’s tails). It’s important to remember that this DOES INCLUDE s’s already added bwcause of plurality (The dogs’ tails, the kids’ vacation) If you have any questions please ask, or if anyone else notices a mistake or another situation I forgot please let me know and I’ll fix it.

I wonder if this will help: [https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/apostrophe](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/apostrophe)

No apostrophe: plural Has apostrophe: possession. Pets = more than one pet Pet’s = relating to or owned by the pet The apostrophe actually goes back to when English had semi-proper word inflection to indicate meaning. The -‘s comes from a genitive singular -es case ending. Genitive case in languages indicates possession, material makeup, etc So pets = plural And pet’s = *petes > pet’s The ONLY exception is the word **it** as a pronoun. It’s = it is; a contraction Its = possessive It’s a car vs its car

Something I haven't seen mentioned much is that *'s* can also be used to contract the words *is* and *has* in informal speech, with the latter (*has* \-> *'s*) being even more informal than *is* \-> *'s* is, eg. "He is a fairly handsome guy" -> "He's a fairly handsome guy" and "My dog has never been to the beach" -> "My dog's never been to the beach." This can even occur after phrases, eg. "That **girl** I've been talking to **is** amazing" -> "That **girl** I've been talking to**'s** amazing." In American English, the *has* one only occurs for perfect tensess, eg. *he has eaten* ✓ and never for possession, eg. *he has two bicycles* X. If you have *(blank)* \+ *is* \+ *not*, you can say *(blank)'s not* or *(blank) isn't*, but not *(blank)'sn't*; note that *(blank) isn't* has a stronger emphasis on the negation than *(blank)'s not* does, and in informal contexts, *(blank) is not* has an even stronger emphasis on negation still. If you have *(blank)* \+ *has* \+ *not*, you can say *(blank) hasn't (verb)*, but *(blank)'s not (verb)* will sound strange. British English is looser with these rules, but I couldn't tell you what they do do and don't do, I just know that they use these contractions in more ways than we do. As for other varieties of English I couldn't really tell you anything other than that I'm pretty sure Canadians use the same patterns we (Americans) do

Plural never gets apostrophe before the S. Apostrophes are used for contractions (combining two words) and for possession. The only possessive pronoun that doesn't use an apostrophe is *its.* As far as I can tell, that is just to distinguish it from the possessive *it's.*

It’s only for possessives and contractions, but probably are exceptions. It’s not correct for just plural, although sometimes you’ll see people use it wrong

Honestly, so are most native speakers. The apostrophe is maybe the piece of punctuation that’s most commonly misused. Go around any city in the UK and plenty of shop signs will have apostrophes flung onto the end of random plurals.

Plural, never (many words) Possessive, for nouns but not pronouns (the car’s gearbox, its gearbox) Contractions, always (Mike’s silly. He’s silly.) It gets more difficult when several apply. For example, if a plural owns something, the apostrophe comes after the s (the cops’ cars). This is specifically for a plural, not a word that normally ends with an s (Congress’s debate).

Possessive possesses one.  Plurals don't.  "My cats" = I have multiple cats "My cat's" = I'm about to name an item that belongs to my cat 

's is possessive s is plural s' is plural and possessive Exception it's is "it is" its is possessive, e.g. The monster was scary, its mouth was all teeth.

Here’s how I think of it: * **Plural words** (like "pets") don’t need an apostrophe unless they’re showing possession. So "your pets" (just plural) vs. "your pet’s toy" (possession-the toy belongs to the pet). * **Names/possession** always get an apostrophe + s when something belongs to them. So "Jennifer’s cat" is correct because the cat belongs to Jennifer. "Jennifers cat" would be wrong (unless "Jennifers" is a last name or something, but even then, it’d still need an apostrophe!). * **Business names** like "Joey’s coffee shop" follow the same rule - it’s Joey’s because he owns it. You don’t use an apostrophe + s when: * It’s just a plural (e.g., "I have two cats" ✅ not "cat’s"). * With possessive pronouns like "its" (e.g., "The dog wagged its tail" ✅ not "it’s tail" that would mean "it is tail").

You've got the possessive 's figured out! It is Jennifer's pet and Joey's Cafe. Also note that an apostrophe can also be used when combining two words (see the "you've" in my first sentence, in place of "you have"?). So it is very common to see "it's going to rain" (it is), "that's not true" (that is), "what's going on?" (what is), for example.

Yeah, as other have stated, the apostrophe is only for possession, never for plurals. The apostrophe s is actually a remnant of the old Saxon and more recently German "genitive" case where possession was indicated using an "s" ending at the end of a word: e.g. Das Haus meine**s** Bruder**s** it's one of the last remnants of these case endings left in English.

Add an s (no apostrophe) to a noun to make it plural (for most nouns that do not have an irregular plural form): - cat (singular), cats (plural) Add an apostrophe+s for possessive: - Bob’s house (the house that belongs to Bob) - the cat’s paw (the paw that is on the cat) Add an apostrophe *after* the s if it is both plural and possessive, or if the word ends in s: - the cats’ food bowls (the bowls that belong to multiple cats) - my boss’ desk (the desk belonging to my boss) - Carlos’ house (the house that belongs to Carlos)

Apostrophes are so rarely used to form plurals that you will almost never make a mistake if you live by the rule that YOU DON’T USE APOSTROPHES TO FORM PLURALS.

It almost sounds like you actually know the rule, so maybe I'm misunderstanding the question. But to be specific about the rule, you never use an apostrophe for plural. If it's plural, no apostrophe. If you're using a contraction, you use an apostrophe. All of the apostrophes I've used so far in this comment are of this type. But that's about to change, because I'm about to go to Joey's coffee shop, and "Joey's" is an example of using an apostrophe to indicate possessive.