Apostrophes ‘ Why do we have them? When should they be used? Test your own knowledge and understanding in this presentation. ‘ Do these little punctuation marks catch you out? Here we will be finding out all about apostrophes.

Don’t I’m do not I am Omission An apostrophe can be used to show the place of a missing letter or letters in a word. Don’t The missing letter is ‘o’ do not The missing letter is ‘a’ I’m I am

If we start with a singular noun Possession An apostrophe can also be used to show that one thing belongs to something or someone else. This is known as the apostrophe of possession. If we start with a singular noun the dog then we we just add ‘s the dog’s tail

If the noun we start with is plural Possession If the noun we start with is plural the dogs then we just add an apostrophe after the s the dogs’ tails Some plurals do not end in s, and so we add ‘s the men’s coats

James’ new shoes or James’s new shoes Possession Proper nouns that end in ‘s’ can use either apostrophe+s or just an apostrophe. James’ new shoes or James’s new shoes Mr Davies’ cat or Mr Davies’s cat These possessive pronouns do not use apostrophes: yours his hers its ours theirs Short for ‘it is’ possessive pronoun NOTE: The bird folded its wing. It’s a long way to go.

Plenary Apostrophes can be used to show when one thing belongs to another (possession). Knowing why you are using apostrophes will help you to avoid errors. Apostrophes can be used in place of missing letters (omission).