The contractive possessive apostrophe: Part 1

Kylee's idea: Possessive apostrophes shrink words. Don't be alarmed! This is not a trick, and it doesn't involve a long hall with a small table in it, or a curious and candid girl in a blue dress*. (In Part 2 there are cats, but they are not smiling in a sinister or any other fashion.)

It's all completely straightforward, I assure you. Read on.

Please note that in the following paragraphs, italics have been added for a reason that is specific to that paragraph.

The contractive apostrophe

Before I get to telling you about the possessive contractive case, I think it is important that I do not assume too much. Instead, I will begin by describing for you the base unit of simplicity, that much-used and well-known apostrophe, the contractive apostrophe. If you do not think you know what this is, just run back through this paragraph and observe how much shorter it could have been if I had used the contractive cases of the italicised words instead of writing them all out in full. (The paragraph sounds rather formal, too, does it not? I will return to this matter of style in Part 3.)

Keep hold of the contractive apostrophe (you'll need it), and prepare to be reminded of other simple stuff you already know.

Just like contractive apostrophes, possessive apostrophes are contractive

They really are. They require writers to leave out something, so they shrink words.

Don’t believe me? Well, it’s just my idea, of course—that is, it’s Kylee’s idea:

• the idea of Kylee, or

• the idea by Kylee, or even

• the idea from Kylee.

As you can see, all the italicised words in the above bullet list show the relationship that the idea has to me, its creator. They’re called prepositions, and they show how nouns are connected in ideas—but there’s really no need to get too technical about them, because, after all, in this case, we’re discarding them. Who needs them when there is a perfectly conventional way of leaving them out? In Kylee’s idea, we can chuck away ofs, bys, and froms; in fact, chucking such things away and making sentences shorter is exactly the idea behind Kylee’s idea (and the possessive case).

Still, since you can see I made up this idea—you may wonder if you can trust it. After all, I created it, it’s my idea. If it was your idea, you would certainly know to whom it belonged (you) and who had made it up. In this case, it’s me that made it up, so it’s mine, not yours. But before we get into a fight over it, just look at all the words in italics in this paragraph and note that they show ownership. I would argue that we all routinely use such words (i.e., my, mine, your, yours, their, theirs) every day without feeling any concern about what they denote, which is possession or ownership.

Despite the fact that I’ve snuck up on you a bit with this idea of ownership—and, my apologies for doing that, but it seemed by far the best way to get you to realise that you already know most of this stuff—I’m hoping that you can clearly and simply see (a) what is meant by a possessive relationship between things/people, and (b) that it is really very basic and you already know it.

An aside about possessives apostrophes and pronouns: They are not friends

What on earth are pronouns?!? (I thought this was supposed to be simple stuff you already knew!) Ok, pronouns are just words we use instead of nouns or names. People have names and objects have names. When we know what object or person we mean, we use another word to stand in for that name so we don't have to keep repeating the name (just another way grammar helps us cut down on repetition).

Here's an example (watch the colour connections):

Kylee has too many ideas. At least she tries to explain them, but I think it makes her a bit verbose.

I don't want to say too much more about that under the circumstances!

To cut to the main chase, the following pronouns are all possessive (and they don't have any apostrophes, so don't put them in, not ever ever ever):

my, mine, your, yours, their, theirs, his, hers, its

Summing up: Who (or what) owns the thing

In our example case, Kylee's idea (the idea by Kylee), the thing is an idea, and the possessor is me. Clearly, then, to decide where you’re going to put the “ ’s ” and correctly use the possessive contractive apostrophe, you first need to ask yourself who/what owns it? whose is it? who invented it? who's wearing it? who/what is it for? who/what is in an ownership relationship with that other thing?

Here are some examples (disposable prepositions are in green):

The speech by the Premier = The Premier's speech.

The flooring for the museum = The museum's flooring.

The silly face of my uncle = My uncle's silly face.

In the next instalment of Kylee’s idea, aka Part 2 of The Contractive Possessive Apostrophe, I’ll explain how to use the possessive apostrophe in the plural case—such as, for example, in the very alarming circumstance where multiple cats are wearing pyjamas.

Have a beautiful day.

* I mean Alice, in Wonderland; hopefully you've heard of her, but if not, click here: https://www.booktopia.com.au/alice-s-adventures-in-wonderland-lewis-carroll/book/9781409533016.html