Another question on apostrophe use

frisco said:

Billington stifled a laugh, then waved him off. She had been around long enough to know that Martha Nevens was difficult. Sometimes it seemed her main job duty was dealing with conflicting personalities. She felt like a referee.

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Above, Nevins is not possessive, so it is correct without an apostrophe.

If you write a truck belongs to her: This is Martha Nevens' truck.

If the truck belongs to Martha and her husband: This is the Nevenses' truck.

Leave it as it is. There is absolutely no reason to use an apostrophe.

Apostrophes are ONLY used in the following situations:

1) show possessive noun (either singular or plural).
2) show contraction of two words.

Examples: The dogs are yellow. No apostrophe needed; "dogs" is plural, not possessive. The dogs' tails are yellow. Apostrophe used; "dogs'" is possessive. (What belongs to the dogs? The tails belong to the dogs.) The dog's bone is buried in the yard. Apostrophe used; "dog's" is possessive. (What belongs to the singular dog? The bone.)

It's cold outside. Apostrophe used; the word "it's" is a contraction of two words: It is cold outside. She's tired. Apostrophe used; "she's" is a contraction of she is. The dog's yellow. Apostrophe used; here "dog's" is a contraction of dog is.

These situations are the only times you will ever need to use an apostrophe. Just because a word ends with an S doesn't mean it requires an apostrophe. That's only the case when the word is a possessive or a contraction.

frisco said:

I'm a bit puzzled on the proper punctuation for this paragraph.

Billington stifled a laugh, then waved him off. She had been around long enough to know that Martha Nevens was difficult. Sometimes it seemed her main job duty was dealing with conflicting personalities. She felt like a referee.

My main concern is in how to write the characters name. Writing Martha Nevens was difficult--I'm not sure if an apostraphe belongs in her last name or not.

Martha Nevens was difficult
Martha Neven's was difficult
Martha Nevens' was difficult

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The others covered it well. In the above three examples, the second one could be read as "Martha Neven is was difficult." While both could imply that she owned 'was'. As in, "It was Martha Nevens' ego that lead her to believe..." She does not own "was" and so is not "is was" so thus, she simply was difficult.

Also, apostrophe*.

Your main intuition was correct (you have a good gut, so trust it more. ).

If you've called your charcter Nevans, you don't split the 's' from the 'n' at any time -- it's your character's name:

Jennings, Jones, Michaels

not

Jenning, Jone, Michael,

the 's' is part of the name, so keep it attached all the time (Nevans, not Nevan's).

For possession, see Chase and those above. Any punctuation sould come after the 's', because the 's' is...part of the name, lol:

Nevans' etc

If the name is Nevens, and normally ends in s, there is never an apostrophe between the n and the s.
More than one Nevens would be Nevenses.
The single possessive, something belonging to one Nevens, would be Nevens's.
The possessive plural, something belonging to more than one Nevens, would be Nevenses'.
A contraction, like isn't, for is not or it's for it is would also use an apostrophe.
The name isn't plural, possessive or involved in a contraction; ergo, no apostrophe.