Which term indicates possession or the omission of letters or numbers?

Which term indicates possession or the omission of letters or numbers?

• A. Apostrophe
• B. Hyphen
• C. Period
• D. Comma

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that the apostrophe marks both possession and missing letters or numbers. For possession, you attach it to a noun to show ownership, like the student’s book, meaning the book belonging to the student. With plural ownership, you often place the apostrophe after the s, as in the dogs’ bowls, to show that the bowls belong to multiple dogs. For omission, the apostrophe signals that letters have been left out in contractions, such as can’t (cannot) or it’s (it is), showing where letters were removed. It also appears in shorthand for numbers, like ’60s, where the leading digits are omitted. Hyphen, period, and comma serve different roles—hyphens connect words, periods end sentences, and commas indicate a pause or separation—so they don’t convey possession or omitted letters/numbers the way the apostrophe does.

The key idea is that the apostrophe marks both possession and missing letters or numbers. For possession, you attach it to a noun to show ownership, like the student’s book, meaning the book belonging to the student. With plural ownership, you often place the apostrophe after the s, as in the dogs’ bowls, to show that the bowls belong to multiple dogs.

For omission, the apostrophe signals that letters have been left out in contractions, such as can’t (cannot) or it’s (it is), showing where letters were removed. It also appears in shorthand for numbers, like ’60s, where the leading digits are omitted.

Hyphen, period, and comma serve different roles—hyphens connect words, periods end sentences, and commas indicate a pause or separation—so they don’t convey possession or omitted letters/numbers the way the apostrophe does.