An apostrophe on the wrong side of a decade

An apostrophe stands in for the dropped century, so it goes before the numerals ('90s); an age range or a plain plural takes none (90s). An apostrophe after the numerals reads as a possessive, which a line can genuinely mean, so check the reading before replacing.

Convention: Some numbers stay digits.

Example

[Verse]
Back in the 90's we had it all

In the workbench this reads: Use “'90s” or “90s” instead of “90's”.

[Verse]
Party like it's the '90s

The fix

In the workbench this finding carries one control, labelled Replace with '90s. The change is contextual, so it is previewed as a diff in your document first and applies only when you confirm it.

The convention and its limits

This check detects the pattern shown above. An accepted example passes this check; it is not a review of the whole transcription.

Sources

The sources cited by this check:

Number spelling (opens in a new tab) verified 2026-08-12 Spell out numbers with exceptions

Use standardized spellings (opens in a new tab) verified 2026-08-12 Preferred spellings with contextual exceptions