I want to talk about my #1 grammatical pet peeve. Now I don’t claim to have perfect English, but I do strive to get this one particular thing mostly right because for some reason it bothers me more than other things.
What I am referring to is… the dreaded… APOSTROPHE.

The majority of the mistakes with apostrophes that I see are made in relation to last names. For example, when you sign a letter: Love, The Smith’s (WRONG), instead of Love, The Smiths (RIGHT!).

Let me clarify: Unless you are showing that you own something (like The Smiths’ House), your last name should never have an apostrophe with it!!!!!!

So just a quick breakdown (and these are only the rules that I think are most pertinent).

The 2 uses of the apostrophe are:
-To mark omission (in a contraction like “can’t”) – I think we all get this one.
-To show possession (ownership) – I will focus on this one.

Possessive Apostrophes:
For a singular noun, add apostrophe + s: cat’s meow
For a singular noun ending in s, there are 2 accepted possibilities: boss’ shoes or boss’s shoes
For a plural noun without an s, add apostrophe + s: children’s toys
For normal plural nouns, add an apostrophe at the end: all my friends’ kids (many friends)

I found this funny little example on Wikipedia:

Kingsley Amis, on being challenged to produce a sentence whose meaning depended on a possessive apostrophe, came up with:

• “Those things over there are my husbands.” (I’m married to those men over there.)
• “Those things over there are my husband’s.” (Those things over there belong to my husband.)

I hope this clears it up! And if you often make the “last name mistake,” please don’t take offense to this post; I hope it helps!.

Here is a cool Spanish music video that shows the lyrics (called a Typographical Video) of the song Ya No Sé Que Hacer Conmigo by Cuarteto de Nos. It would be great with the teaching of el pretérito.