Question

Identify the error in apostrophe use: Pat's friend just called to ask if Tom's brother will be at richards' birthday party ? A). Pat's B). tom's C). Richards' D). no error

Answer 1

Lets go through each of the choices. Is" Pat's" wrong? If we go over when to use apostrophes we can assume that they are used for either possession (Childrens' [ plural ] Kayla's [ singular ] ) or joining words (don't, can't, etc.) Is Pat's showing possession or is it joining words?

Answer 2

Pat's is right because it pat's friend

Answer 3

Yup! Pat's shows possession. it is HER friend. So we can move on to the next choice, "Tom's". Does that show possession?

Answer 4

tom's is right because it's his brother

Answer 5

Right! Its Tom's brother! So we move on to yet another choice, "Richards'" Now this one's a bit different. When an apostrophe is after s it means it plural. For example: "The cats' played with a ball of yarn." There is more than 1 cat so we put the apostrophe after the S. Is there more than 1 Richard? No. So that is the error. :)

Answer 6

http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/apostro.asp This site may help you with the use of apostrophes as well. :)