Forum - (Wiki) Discussion: NPC's NPCs

Posted Anonymously on Feb 1 2009, 12:34 PM EST

For the majority of words, apostrophe s is used to denote possession.

So, "An NPC's speech" or "The NPC's item"
As opposed to "Several NPCs"

An apostrophe is also used in contractions.
It's (it is), can't (cannot), won't (will not), etc.

An exception however would something like its, where you're showing possession (possessed by it) but there's no apostrophe s because "it's" already means "it is." (the contraction mentioned above.)

Hobserk on Feb 2 2009, 1:36 AM EST

yup I know what it is used for. The question was more where it isn't used. For some reason half of the internet uses 's as a plural for abbreviations. I expected it to be wrong and google agreed, and I guess so do you :)

Posted by Jubilee on January 22, 2025 at 15:52.

»Hobserk on Jan 28 2009, 1:36 AM EST

I've changed NPC's to NPCs here and on the front page and renamed this page to the non abbreviated form.
English is not my first language, but atleast according to google, apostrophe s as a plural is only used for single letters, or not at all (even though half of the internet's messageboard population seems to disagree).
Any native english speakers who disagree with google?«

NPCs is an acronym for "Non-player Characters", so saying NPC's means "Non-player Character's" implying possession. "Non-plater character's dialogue." as opposed to referring to them on their own, which would be something like "Go speak to the non-player characters in Bamboo Village.".

The term NPCs has since been retired on the wiki, as it's a video game-only term, and the wiki covers all aspects of the franchise now.