 Apostrophes are your friends, and like your friends, they'll get sad if you misuse them. Let us show you a few basic guidelines for apostrophes so you can stay on their good side. Possessive. This means belonging or ownership, and apostrophe shows that something is being possessed. Not in an evil way. Let's look at examples. The cat's bed is warm and cozy. The apostrophe shows that the cat bed belongs to the cat. Have you seen the restaurant's menu? Again, the menu belongs to the restaurant. Next rule. Possessive but more than one owner. What happens when there's more than one owner? You generally put the apostrophe on the outside of the word instead. I found the dog's toy. I found the dog's toy. If there's more than one dog, the apostrophe goes on the outside. The student's books are on the table. The student's books are on the table. The apostrophe on the outside lets us know if there's more than one owner. That said, if the word already indicates it's plural, like children or geese, then use the apostrophe before the S. The geese's pond froze over early. Next, plural. If there's more than one thing, it's plural. Apostrophes don't really have anything to do with plurals, except for rare occasions. Let's look at normal instances. There are three pairs on the counter. Look at all those chickens. See how there's no apostrophe? A couple of the rare occasions you might encounter are, how many A's did you get on your report card? Here's some dos and don'ts. It's versus it's. This is the one that really trips people up. Remember when I said that an apostrophe shows possession? Not in this case. In this case, it's only used to make it's a contraction. It's cute when the cat licks it's paw. There really isn't a great way to remember this, except when you're reading over your writing to check to see if you've got the right it's, replace it with it is and see if it makes sense. It is cute when the cat licks it is paw. Nope. No apostrophe on that second one. Finally, the contractions rule. Apostrophes can take the place of letters in words. Take a look. Don't, I've, you'll, was, there, who's. So if you need to take a letter out of a word, you might want to put an apostrophe there to replace it. There are a few more picky rules, but these are the basics. Apostrophes show possession or ownership. They're used in contractions like didn't, and I'd, and it's, and they are not used for plurals, except in a couple rare occasions. So scan your writing for apostrophes and make sure you are treating them well and letting them do their best work.