r put it in bold lettering. You can also underline it, or even write it in ALL CAPS. (Just be aware that ALL CAPS is not acceptable in formal writing, and is often considered annoying, so be careful!) But please, don’t use quotation marks for emphasis.
While we’re on the topic of quotation marks, here are three quick things to remember:
- Commas and periods go inside the closing quotation mark.
“I don’t really know what that means,” Joey said.
- Question marks and exclamation points go inside the closing quotation mark if they’re part of the quote.
He exclaimed, “I hate pastrami!”
When they’re not a part of the quote, they go outside the quotes.
Have you ever seen the movie “Gone with the Wind”?
- Colons, semicolons and dashes always go outside the closing quotation mark.
I had two goals for my “me day”: sleeping, and sleeping some more.
“Me day” is another example of a common spoken phrase referring to something specific (in this case, a day someone has set aside for themselves).
Breaking even these small rules can cause confusion. Is the title of the movie a question (“Gone with the Wind?”), or a statement (“Gone with the Wind”)? Watch out for those quotation marks!
2. Confusing plurals with possessives.
It’s easy to understand why many people have trouble with apostrophes. They can be confusing!
Instead, let’s start with plurals. Making something plural means turning it into more than one single thing. A cat becomes “many cats.” A single class turns into “a few classes.” Most nouns simply require you to add “-s” or “-es” to the word, with a few special rules for nouns that end in certain letters (you can see more information about that here). But there’s one fact that always remains true: you never need an apostrophe to turn a word into a plural.
So why do you need apostrophes? To show that something belongs to something else—in other words, to show possession. A toy mouse belonging to a cat is “the cat’s toy mouse.” A house that belongs to your friend is “your friend’s house.”
Many people start to get confused when it comes to plural possessives. The basic rules are less complicated than you probably think:
- For plural nouns ending in “-s,” only add an apostrophe after the “s.”
- For every other kind of noun, add an apostrophe and “s.”
That’s it! Still confused? Let’s say your friends are going out to fly some kites. The kites belong to your friends, so they’re “your friends’ kites.” Your friend Chris doesn’t have a kite because his is broken. Chris is not a plural noun, so even though his name ends in an “s,” you would say “Chris’s broken kite.”
It only gets a little more complicated: Sometimes, you may see only an apostrophe after a singular name ending in “s.” This rule can vary depending on pronunciation, different styles of writing and how certain names are commonly said. For example, you may see “James’s kite,” but also “James’ kite.” However, if you just follow the two rules above in your own writing, you can be confident that it will generally be considered correct.
Two other points to remember about apostrophes:
- They’re also used for contractions like “it’s” and “that’s.” These words are not possessive, because they stand for “it is” and “that is.” If you’re ever unsure, just split up the contraction into the two words that make it up and see if it makes sense:
It’s raining outside. / It is raining outside.
- There’s no apostrophe in possessive pronouns. That means words like “his,” “hers” and “its” don’t need an apostrophe.
Even if you don’t remember these rules, just remember one thing: Plural nouns never take an apostrophe before the “s.” So when you’re turning a singular noun into a plural one, do not add an apostrophe!
3. Using too many commas.
Have you ever gotten so excited about something that your words all ran into each other?
“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe he (or she) asked me out, this is the best day ever, I’ve been dreaming about this, I have no idea what to wear!”
Wow, slow down there! Commas are not enough to slow down this sentence. Without a real break between all those thoughts, the sente