Naught for the comfort of Lynne Nicholls (The Argus, October 17), I fought the battle of the possessive apostrophe for more than 30 years, with indifferent
success in the classroom, even though the rule is so simple.
You merely invert the sentence and the apostrophe goes after the last letter, as in the following examples:
The girls' hockey team (several girls) becomes the hockey team of the girls.
The boy's father (one boy) becomes the father of the boy.
The problem arises for people who imagine all plurals require an apostrophe - and some greengrocers really love banana's, tomatoe's and apple's.
-Maurice Packham, Horsham
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