Newsletters & Blogs

I noted in the July newsletter that one of our more recent members in May was the President of the King's English Society (KES). The KES has a broader remit than the APS, with a focus on promoting the good use of the English language as a whole. While our focus at the APS may be on one particularly small (but often troublesome!) punctuation mark, our aims are very much aligned: encouraging clarity, accuracy and care in the way we write. It is always encouraging to find other

Three years ago, in September 2023, I did a live interview on Ireland's RTÉ Radio 1 (I did a blog post for that at the time). It can't have been too bad as they asked me back again today. It was a short 10 minute chat about the APS, the importance of apostrophes, how to use them, and what people get wrong. Immediately after the interview, I saw a surge in web traffic and an influx of new members! If you're one of those new APS members, welcome and thank you. I'll add an audio

Today, 15 August, is International Apostrophe Day – a day on which we invite everyone to spare a thought for one of the smallest, hardest-working and most frequently misunderstood punctuation marks in the English language. And this year we have an extra reason to celebrate: 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the Apostrophe Protection Society. The APS was founded in 2001 by the late journalist and sub-editor John Richards, who had become increasingly concerned about the misuse

​From time to time, members ask about words such as crack'd, bless'd or lov'd. Have the apostrophe rules changed, or are these simply old-fashioned mistakes? ​ The answer is that they're neither. ​ These spellings were once a perfectly normal way of showing that one or more letters had been omitted. Crack'd stands for cracked, bless'd for blessed, and lov'd for loved. The apostrophe tells us that the "e" has disappeared. ​ Writers, poets and printers used these contractions e

​Every so often, an APS member asks a wonderfully awkward question: if can't comes from cannot and won't comes from will not, why is shall not contracted to shan't? Surely it ought to be sha'n't, with two apostrophes? It's a fair question. The answer lies in history rather than logic. ​Originally, both forms existed. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, writers occasionally used sha'n't, with one apostrophe marking the missing letters in shall and the other marking

​Here's a modern apostrophe puzzle that would have baffled Shakespeare. ​ When an initialism becomes a verb, how do we add -ed? Consider these examples: I cc'd everyone in the email. She OK'd the proposal. They RSVP'd yesterday. The apostrophe is there for a good reason. Without it, ccd, OKed and RSVPed look awkward and can be difficult to read. The apostrophe neatly separates the abbreviation from the ending, making it immediately obvious that -d represents the past tense. ​

Brian Bilston is a brilliant and very clever poet. Here's a punctuation poem example for you:

This is a selection of links to media coverage of the North Yorkshire Council decision to remove apostrophes from street signs - and the...

They say that "Fine words butter no parsnips". But I was delighted to talk at length recently with the team behind the popular Butter No...

We have a brand new APS Store page for you, containing links to a variety of products related to apostrophes, punctuation and other...

I spotted this howler in a news feed from The Mirror newspaper in the UK. ​ I emailed their news desk and media teams about this and they...

Now you can follow us on Twitter as well!

Introducing membership

In response to queries from readers, I've extended the guidance in the 'Apostrophe Use' page to include additional topics such as the use...

We've connected with an existing Facebook page for the Apostrophe Protection Society! With a consistent look and feel across both the web...

I am excited to announce that the new website for the Apostrophe Protection Society is now live! Next, I'm starting to build a full...

It's almost ready! The new website is in draft, agreements have been reached, and we're almost ready to bring the APS back to the world!