(Staying true to form, I shall turn my first proper post into a rant about grammar (or lack thereof). This will most likely be a recurring theme. Sorry to bore those of you who actually understand the language that you're speaking.)
Apostrophes denote possession (though not a possessive pronoun) or contraction. You can also use the same character for single quotes, although it is no longer referred to as an apostrophe at that point.
Apostrophes have no other uses. Please stop using them to pluralise things. It hurts my eyes.
For those of you who are in need of examples, or are in any way confused about the words possession and contraction:
'You're' is a contraction of the words 'you' and 'are'. The apostrophe is in place to symbolise that there are letters (in this case 'a') missing, not because that's where the two words join. This is why the apostrophe in 'don't' is where it is - replacing the 'o' in 'not'. This can also be used to contract single long words - 'suppose' becomes 's'pose'.
'George's bag' is possession. The bag belongs to George. If, however, we refer to George with a pronoun rather than a proper noun, it becomes 'his bag' - no apostrophe with the pronoun.
Possessive pronouns to remember: his/hers/its/mine/my/theirs/their/yours/your.
This post inspired by some particularly appalling literature linked to me via deviantArt. Please, if you do not understand basic grammar rules, for the love of God, please, don't call yourself a writer.
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