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Apostrophes

Use apostrophes to form contractions and the possessive forms of nouns.

Contractions

Use common contractions to enhance the friendly and conversational tone of your content.

Contractions are short forms of multiple words, formed by replacing omitted letters with an apostrophe. The conversational tone of Unity content means that it's okay to use contractions.

In user interfaces (UIs), don't mix contractions and their spelled-out equivalents. For example, don’t use "can’t" and "cannot" in the same UI.

For more information about which contractions to use and which to avoid, refer to Contractions.

Possessives

Use an apostrophe to indicate the possessive form of a noun. The exact form of the possessive depends on the type of noun.

Noun typeAdditionExample
Singular'sfile's
Plural that doesn't end in s'schildren's
Plural that ends in s'users'
note

The possessive pronoun "yours" and the possessive determiner "its" don't use apostrophes.

Product, and feature names

Don't use the possessive form of names of elements in the API or in the user interface. Instead, restructure the sentence or use a replacement noun.

IncorrectCorrect
isValid's value
  • The isValid property's value.
  • the value of the isValid property
Set the light's Type.
  • the Type property of the Light component.
  • the type property of the Light component.
the GameObject's Rigidbody.
  • the Rigidbody component on the GameObject.
 

Don't use possessives for names of Unity products and services. In most cases, you don't need to rewrite the sentence.

IncorrectCorrect
Unity Multiplayer's servicesUnity Multiplayer services
SpeedTree's SDKSpeedTree SDK

Acronyms

Unless an acronym refers to a person or an organization, don't use the possessive form.

IncorrectCorrect
The HUD's brightness

The HUD brightness

The brightness of the HUD

Unity MAR's featuresUnity MARS features
The CEO's email