Home | News | Office | Word Check | Dictionary

Is it ones or one's? - Australian spelling

I find it can be very easy for people to confused when to use the apostrophe or not. Whether the apostrophe is used or not will depend on the situation. The apostrophe is used to indicate possession.

To give one's word.

An example where the word is used without the apostrophe is:

To count by ones.

The s in this case is used to indicate plurals.

Why this can get very confusing is the following example for the Macquarie Concise dictionary - Third Edition, page 1377.

"An apostrophe is used for the plural forms of single letters or numbers as with: p's and q's, 1's and 2's. However groups of letters or numbers do not require the apostrophe: MPs, 747s, 1980s."

Online Connections ©  2024.