How to use apostrophes and possessives in AP style

The main henchman for carrying out this task is the humble apostrophe.

How exactly the apostrophe is used to show ownership is complicated, and we’ll get to that. First though, let’s look at some other uses of this floating comma.

Omitted letters or numbers

Use the apostrophe to indicate when letters have been left out (for instance, in contractions like “isn’t” or “I’ve”) or when numbers have been dropped (as in, “the summer of ’69,” or “the roaring ‘20s.’”)

Single letter plurals

If you need to make one letter plural, add an apostrophe, as in “straight A’s.” However, don’t use this same process for numbers: Just add an s, as in, “he gave me my change in $1s.”

For quotes within quotes

If you’re quoting someone who’s quoting someone, use a single quote — aka, an apostrophe — within the quotation marks, as in: “Right before she dumped me, she said, ‘you’ve been playing video games for the last 19 hours.’”

Possessives

With those minor uses out of the way, let’s tackle the gnarly mess that is possessives.