Does The Apostrophe Go Before The Year? | Fix Year Marks

You’ve seen it a hundred times: ’99, ’07, the ’80s. You’ve also seen 90’s and 1990’s floating around on signs, menus, and even school handouts. So what’s right, and when?

The core idea is simple. An apostrophe in a year is a “missing numbers” mark. It shows that digits were cut off. Once you keep that in your head, the rest falls into place fast.

Apostrophe Before The Year In Short Dates And Decades

When you shorten a four-digit year to two digits, the apostrophe sits where the missing digits would have been. That missing chunk is at the start, so the apostrophe goes at the start too.

• Correct: ’99, ’07, ’21
• Not this: 99’ or 07’ (those make the apostrophe act like a possessive mark, which isn’t what you mean)

This is the same logic you use in other shortenings, like “rock ’n’ roll.” The apostrophe stands in for letters you dropped. With years, you’re dropping numbers.

What The Apostrophe Is Doing

Think of the apostrophe as a tiny “cut here” flag. In ’99, you cut off “19” or “20” and keep the last two digits. The apostrophe signals that the first part is gone.

In careful writing, you’ll often keep the full year and skip the apostrophe issue entirely. In casual writing, notes, captions, and dialogue, a shortened year can be a nice fit when the century is obvious from context.

Use The Curly Mark In Published Text

Most fonts show a curly apostrophe (’). That’s the typographic form used in books and polished web pages. A straight tick (‘) often shows up from quick typing or coding habits.

If you control the final formatting, use the curly apostrophe in shortened years: ’90s, ’07, ’99. In HTML, a right single quote can also be written as ’.

Does The Apostrophe Go Before The Year?

Yes for shortened years and shortened decade names, because the apostrophe replaces missing digits at the front. No for full years and plain decade plurals, because nothing is missing.

That one sentence answers most “apostrophe and year” headaches. Next, let’s get precise about the cases that trip people up.

When You Should Skip The Apostrophe

If you write the full year, there’s nothing to replace. So you write 1999, 2007, 2021 with no apostrophe.

The same goes for decades written in full numerals. A decade is a plural number, not a possessive, so you add s without an apostrophe.

• Correct: the 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s
• Not this: the 1990’s, the 2000’s

Purdue’s punctuation guidance uses the same distinction: “the 1960s” for the decade and “the ’60s” for the shortened form. See Purdue OWL’s apostrophe examples for the decade and abbreviated-decade forms.

Why “1990’s” Looks Tempting

Apostrophes feel like they belong with an s. We see them in possessives all the time: the teacher’s notes, the dog’s leash. That visual habit makes “1990’s” look familiar.

Still, “1990s” is just a plural label for a set of years. No possession is happening. Treat it like “three CDs,” not like “the CD’s case.”

Decades: Plural Vs. Possessive

There are two separate jobs you might be trying to do with a decade:

1. Name the decade as a plural time span.
2. Show possession tied to that decade.

Plural Decades

Plural decades add s and stop there:

• the 1970s
• the 90s (informal, century clear)
• the ’90s (informal, century clear, digits dropped)

If you’re writing the shortened decade with missing digits, the apostrophe goes before the decade: ’90s, not 90’s. The Chicago Manual of Style’s Q&A puts it plainly: the apostrophe belongs at the front in forms like ’90s. You can read their note at Chicago Manual of Style Q&A on decades and apostrophes.

Possessive Decades

Possessives are different. If you mean “music from the 1990s” you can write “1990s music” with no apostrophe at all. That’s an attributive noun, not a possessive.

If you truly mean the decade owns something in your sentence, then you add the possessive mark after the plural s:

• the 1990s’ best comedies
• the ’70s’ fashion trends

That looks odd at first glance because you may see two apostrophes in one phrase: one to show missing digits, one to show possession. It’s fine. Each apostrophe has a different job.

Quick Fix Table For Years And Apostrophes

Use this table as a fast check when you’re editing essays, captions, or slides.

What You Mean	Write It Like This	Why It Works
Full year	1999	No digits removed
Shortened year	’99	Marks missing first digits
Decade as a span	1990s	Plural, not possessive
Shortened decade	’90s	Missing digits at the start
Decade used as a label	1990s music	Attributive noun, no apostrophe
Plural decade owning something	1990s’ music charts	Possessive after plural s
Shortened decade owning something	’90s’ music charts	One apostrophe for omission, one for possession
A single year owning something	1999’s top film	Possessive for one year

Common Spots Where Writers Slip

Class Notes And Study Sheets

Fast drafting is where 90’s and 2000’s sneak in. The quickest self-check is to ask: “Am I showing missing digits, or am I trying to make a plural?” If it’s plural, drop the apostrophe.

If you’re shortening a year, add the apostrophe at the front. If you’re not shortening, don’t add one at all.

Decades With Names

When you write decades in words, there’s no apostrophe question: the nineties, the eighties, the twenties. This can be a clean option in essays where you want a smooth flow and fewer numbers on the page.

In academic writing, picking one style and sticking with it reads better than bouncing between “the ’90s” and “the nineties” on the same page.

Titles, Headings, And Posters

Large text makes small punctuation feel louder. A stray apostrophe in “90’s Night” jumps out once you know the rule. If you’re making an event poster, the cleanest plural is “’90s Night” or “90s Night.”

If your audience might misread “90s” as a temperature, add context: “90s Music Night” or “1990s Music Night.”

Second Table: A Simple Editing Checklist

This checklist works well when you’re proofreading your own work right before you hit publish.

Check	Pass Looks Like	Fix If Needed
Is the year shortened?	’07, ’99	Move apostrophe to the front
Is it a decade plural?	1990s, 2000s	Delete apostrophe before s
Is it a decade possessive?	1990s’ style	Add apostrophe after the plural s
Is the apostrophe the curly mark?	’90s	Swap ‘ for ’ where typography matters
Is the century clear?	’20s clearly means 2020s	Write 1920s or 2020s when unclear
Are you mixing styles?	One consistent choice	Standardize across the page

Edge Cases That Deserve A Quick Note

School Years And Ranges

Ranges can be written in several clean ways. If you keep the full years, you can write 1999–2000. If you shorten, keep the apostrophe on each shortened year: ’99–’00.

Be careful with a lone trailing apostrophe after the second number. It can look like possession. Using the same pattern on both sides avoids that mess.

Sports Seasons And Academic Terms

Sports pages often write “the 2023–24 season.” That keeps the first year full and shortens the second by dropping the “20.” If you shorten both, use apostrophes on both: the ’23–’24 season.

On a syllabus, you might see “Fall ’26.” That’s a standard shorthand, as long as your readers can tell which century you mean.

Abbreviations In Quotes

In dialogue, shortened years can sound natural: “I met her in ’09.” In a formal report, a full year avoids ambiguity. Match the tone of the document, then stay consistent.

A Quick Way To Teach This To Someone Else

If you’re helping a student, a friend, or a coworker, skip the grammar lecture. Give them one rule they can apply in ten seconds:

• If the apostrophe stands for missing digits, it goes where the missing digits were.
• If you’re making a plural decade, use s with no apostrophe.
• If you’re showing possession, put the apostrophe where possession marks go: before s for singular, after s for plural.

That’s it. Once they see that an apostrophe is not a “make it plural” button, the mistakes drop fast.

Final Self-Check Before You Publish

Scan your page for any year that ends with s. If the apostrophe appears right before that s, pause. Ask whether you meant a plural decade or possession. Most of the time, you meant a plural decade, so “1990s” is the clean fix.

Then scan for any two-digit year. If you see the apostrophe after the digits, flip it to the front: ’99, not 99’.

Do those two passes and you’ll catch nearly every apostrophe-with-years error in under a minute.