when do i put the apostrophe, after and before the S?

Question

i know if it's owned by someone, you put it before the s

but why do you put it after?
like s'

i was reading a book and it said
" she'd had......"
i cant remember rest of sentance
is it wrong?
because i thought the "she'd" stands for "she had"
so basicilly it would be "she had had......"
or am i wrong?

Answer 1

The way you're describing this may be what's causing the confusion.

Now, talking JUST about the use of the apostrophe in "possessive" forms -- the basic rule is:

1) to form the possessive, add an apostrophe + s

book's
class's

BUT
2) if you already added an s to create the plural form, then you leave off that final s of the possessive and just use an apostrophe

books' (not books's)
dresses'

Since MOST plurals in English are formed by adding s, then MOST plurals only add the apostrophe (no additional s) to form the possessive.

Here's where the confusion comes --

a) If there already happens to be an s-sound at the end of the word that is NOT there to form the plural, you stick with the 'apostrophe -s' rule. That's true whether the word is singular OR plural:

dress's
James's
goose's
geese's

**If all of this makes a word very difficult to pronounce, we may end up getting rid of that final s. Main examples:
Moses', Isis', Jesus'. (Some people also apply it to names like James and Charles, others do not. I've noticed that Yahoo!Answers spell-check dos not like the s here. I do!)

on the other side
b) If the form is a plural NOT formed by adding an s, use apostrophe + s.

examples:
men's
geese's (as noted above)
____________________

Your second questions is about the other main use of apostrophes -- to show where letters have been left out, esp. with contractions (two words combined):

she had > she'd
it is > it's
we are > we're
cannot > can't

You are correct that "she'd had" is equivalent to "she had had". That's a perfectly fine form when you are talking about something that happened BEFORE some other event in the past. For example: "The teacher knew exactly how to handle Timmy's tantrums because she'd had boys like him in her class before."

Perhaps the reason for the confusion is that contractions with ending in 'd may ALSO be used for "would". In other words, "she'd" can be use EITHER for "she had" OR "she would". But because of the different ways the expressions "she had" and "she would" are used, it should normally be very clear which one is meant.

Examples for "she would"
"She'd go if she could" = "She would go. . . "
"She'd usually run a couple of miles after work" = "She would usually run. . . "

("She's" = either "she has" or "she is". Again, which one you man should be clear from the way you use it.)

Answer 2

you actually put the apostrophe before the letter if you are abriviating something.like for example:

she is =she's
it is= it's
i have been= i've been
she would have= she'd have

but if it belongs to something or someone, you put the apostrophe after the letter like: jasons' jeans, or marthas' pet.

if you say jason's jeans it means jason is jeans!!
saying She'd had does mean she had had, but in the right context it makes sense. example: she'd had a few drinks so that means that she had already had a few drinks.

make sense?

Answer 3

Yes it does look wrong but is actually right and actually looks more grammatically correct than if written 'she had had'. The English language is a very complicated thing and also very strange.

Answer 4

you put apostrophe before s if the noun is singular like the house's window but you put the apostrophe after s if the noun is in plural form like the girls' bags or ladies' night. But if the noun is an irregular noun like women or teeth you put apostrophe before s.

Answer 5

You put it after if you mean Pertaining to or belonging to.

Answer 6

not sure of after.but agree she`d had is= to she had had.
Authors make spelling and grammar mistakes also.

Answer 7

yes its right
coz it cud be something lyk
She had had her food before i came...

Answer 8

Its right.

Answer 9

it's already correct. it seems wrong but it's correct..