Grammar Help — Words

• Possessive

  These are words that indicate possession or ownership. Usually indicated by an apostrophe and an s. Exceptions include pronouns (including it) which usually take no apostrophe and plurals which place the apostrophe after the s. The apostrophe is added at the end of the word when the addition of an additional s would be awkward because the word already has two s sounds close to the end of the word such as "Jesus' teachings" instead of "Jesus's teachings."

• Pronouns

  Words such as I, you, he, she, we, they and it which usually are the subject of the sentence.

• Apostrophes

  The most misused symbol in the English language. It's a vestige of when English had four cases: Nomative, Genetive, Accusative and Dative. It's mostly used for contractions and possessives now. I have a business card with the slogan: "It's important to know the apostrophe and its uses." As you see, the sentence uses both "its" and "it's" to demonstrate the difference.

• Word List

  Here's a list of words which I see mangled in my editing work as well as some suggested by friends, colleagues and clients. Use the Free Help button to contribute more.