Apostrophes with Other Contractions

When writing about years, insert an apostrophe where numbers are dropped.

Examples: The winter of '65   the '96 Olympics

In a few words and some names, o', d', l', and t' indicate abbreviated forms of the or of in various languages.

Examples: o'clock    L'Enfant Plaza    P.J. O'Rourke

Sometimes to show pronunciation in dialogue, the word is contracted to show missing letters. Avoid this in formal writing except in quotations, even when the contraction is a more accurate representation.

Examples: C'mon for "come on"

L'il Abner for "Little Abner"

fo'c's'le or fo'csle for "forecastle"

gun'le for "gunwale"

Even though forecastle sounds like "folks'll," and gunwale rhymes with "funnel," these words should not be contracted except in dialogue.

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