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The apostrophe is used in contractions such as we've,it's,hadn't,'em, and some literary words such as e'en and ne'er to show that a letter or letters have been omitted. Do not confuse the contraction it's, meaning it is or it has, with the possessive its, which does not have an apostrophe: It's [= it has] lost all its hair. When used to mark the possessive form of nouns, the apostrophe is followed by s unless the noun is plural and already ends in s: the cat's tail;London's theaters;my children's computer;the companies' accounts;the boys' behavior. For singular nouns ending in s it is often acceptable to use either ' or 's: Dickens' best-loved novel or Dickens's best-loved novel. Note that the possessives its, hers, yours, and theirs do not have an apostrophe. An apostrophe may also be used to indicate relationships of description (a summer's day) or measurement (ten days' absence). The use of an apostrophe in forming the plural of numbers and letters is optional: the word has two Ts/T's;in the 1990s/1990's. However, 's is preferable where confusion may arise, especially in showing plural forms of lowercase letters: dot the i's and cross the t's.
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