The Tiny But Mighty Apostrophe

Don’t underestimate the apostrophe (‘).

This little punctuation mark might be small, but it can completely change the meaning of a sentence!

Take a close look at these examples:

• My brother’s friend’s books: One brother has a friend, and these books belong to the friend.
  
• My brother’s friends’ books: One brother has multiple friends, and these books belong to all of them!
• My brothers’ friend’s books: There is more than one brother, and they share a friend. These books belong to the friend.
• My brothers’ friends’ books: There is more than one brother, and they have multiple friends. These books belong to all the friends (together).

See the difference?

Without the apostrophe, it gets confusing to figure out who owns what!