How to Use Apostrophes | Learn English Grammar for Beginners

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0:08 hi everybody my name is Alicia in this

0:11 lesson we're going to look at how to use

0:13 apostrophes let's get started okay in

0:16 this lesson I want to talk about two

0:19 basic uses of the apostrophe the things

0:22 I'm going to talk about in this lesson

0:24 will cover most basic uses of the

0:26 apostrophe there are two categories of

0:29 use we're going to look at showing

0:31 possession and we're going to look at

0:34 contractions to show the missing letters

0:37 in Words let's start by showing

0:39 possession with apostrophes so to show

0:44 possession with an apostrophe you can

0:46 use apostrophe s after a noun so this

0:50 expresses that something belongs to the

0:54 now so let's look at some very basic

0:56 examples of this first my teacher's pen

1:00 in this example we have my teacher as

1:04 the noun that we have to show possession

1:06 for we have the apostrophe here and then

1:09 it's followed by s next is pen this

1:13 shows that the pen is owned by my

1:16 teacher we can use apostrophe s to

1:19 demonstrate this let's look at the next

1:21 example his sister's Carr his sister's car in

1:26 this sentence sister is the person

1:29 owning something or rather his sister so

1:32 again apostrophe s shows the ownership

1:35 in this situation the car is owned by

1:39 his sister let's look at the last basic

1:42 example it's my father's wallet my

1:45 father's wallet again we have apostrophe

1:48 s after the owner of the object so here

1:52 my father is the owner of the wallet so

1:55 we can use apostrophe s to show

1:58 ownership in this way but there are some

2:01 very important rules to keep in mind to

2:03 make sure that you always express this

2:05 ownership clearly and correctly so let's

2:08 take a look at two key rules for you to

2:11 follow okay first number one if it's a

2:16 singular noun so this means if you want

2:18 to show the possession of something that

2:21 is a singular noun that means just one

2:23 thing or just one person add apostrophe

2:26 s to make it plural okay this is true

2:31 even if the singular noun ends in s so

2:36 this part right here is sometimes

2:38 confusing even for native speakers you

2:40 learn sometimes I shouldn't put another

2:42 s after the noun when should I do that I

2:45 don't know so this is the rule so if

2:47 it's a singular noun add apostrophe s to

2:50 make it plural so let's look at some

2:52 examples of this first the businesses

2:55 plan the businesses plan in this

2:59 situation business is our noun we want to express something

3:04 that is owned by the business so

3:07 business ends with an s but it's a

3:09 singular noun one business right we

3:12 still have to add apostrophe s to make

3:15 it plural I'm sorry we still have to add

3:17 apostrophe s to show ownership this is a

3:19 singular noun we're not making it plural

3:21 here the businesses plan so this shows

3:24 the plan owned by the business okay

3:27 let's look at another example of this

3:30 his bus's schedule his bus is scheduled

3:34 so again bus is a singular noun that

3:37 ends with s we still have to follow this

3:40 rule we add apostrophe s after the bus

3:43 to show ownership so this schedule

3:46 belongs to the bus or his bus in this

3:49 case so it's some kind of connection

3:51 we're showing here here's one more

3:53 example of this s rule her dress is

3:56 color her dresses color so again dress

3:59 is our singular noun it ends in s we

4:02 still have to put apostrophe s to show

4:05 ownership so in this case the dress

4:07 doesn't actually own the color of course

4:10 but the color is a quality that belongs

4:13 to the dress so even if your singular

4:16 noun ends in s you need to put an

4:18 apostrophe s after it to show possession

4:21 to show ownership we saw the same thing

4:23 up here so these singular nouns do not

4:26 end in s but we have to follow the same

4:29 rule so this one is an easy one right if

4:31 you're just talking about one of

4:33 something one noun just put apostrophe s

4:36 after it to show ownership okay great so

4:39 let's continue on to rule number two

4:41 rule number two is a little bit trickier

4:43 than rule number one so let's take a

4:45 look okay for rule number two if it's a

4:49 plural noun so plural means more than

4:51 one of something if it's a plural noun

4:54 use an apostrophe after the s that means

4:57 no additional s after it unless the

5:00 plural noun does not end in s so this is

5:04 kind of tricky let's break down what

5:05 this means so plural nouns generally

5:08 when we create a plural noun we simply

5:10 add s to the end of the noun to make it

5:12 plural right like teacher becomes

5:15 teachers right or sister becomes sisters

5:18 or father becomes fathers right more

5:20 than one of something we add an S to the

5:22 end of it so if it's a plural noun that

5:25 follows this rule just add in a pass

5:27 after the S you don't need to add

5:29 apostrophe plus s just one apostrophe

5:32 and it's good it's done it's finished

5:34 it's good unless however there is an

5:36 exception unless the plural noun doesn't

5:39 end in s so there are some plural nouns

5:42 that don't end in s right they're

5:44 special nouns right so we'll see an

5:46 example of this here so let's take a

5:48 look at these kinds of examples that we

5:50 have and break down what's happening so

5:52 first one my parents house my parents

5:56 house so in this example my parents is

5:59 the noun this is the plural noun two

6:01 people parents right and we have an

6:04 apostrophe after the s in this situation

6:07 there's no extra s after this because it

6:11 follows this rule so the plural noun

6:13 parents in this case just gets an

6:17 apostrophe here like this okay so my

6:20 parents house this shows the house that

6:22 belongs to my parents okay let's look at

6:25 the next example the next example are

6:28 children's grades our children's grades

6:31 so this is an example of the exception

6:34 here so children is an example of a

6:37 plural noun that does not end in s right

6:40 we have one child two children right so

6:43 this is a plural noun that does not end

6:45 in s in this situation we need to use

6:48 apostrophe s just as we did with rule

6:50 number one right so in this situation

6:53 when you have a plural noun that doesn't

6:55 end in s make sure to add that

6:56 apostrophe s so if you want to talk

6:58 about other things like mice for example

7:01 so the mice is something we need to add

7:03 that apostrophe s so this is a good one

7:06 to keep in mind when you're writing a

7:08 sentence that uses those plural nouns

7:10 that are kind of irregular okay let's go

7:13 to the last example the student's party

7:16 the students party so here again we have

7:19 a regular plural noun it's just student

7:21 plus s right students we again put the

7:24 apostrophe after students no additional

7:27 s because it follows the basic rule

7:30 right here so no exception in this case

7:32 so keep this one in mind this one

7:34 requires a little bit more thought just

7:37 consider that S at the end plural noun

7:39 or singular noun those are kind of the

7:41 two things it's important to keep in

7:43 mind with this okay so this is what I

7:46 want to talk about for showing

7:47 possession using apostrophes to show

7:49 possession let's go now to part two so

7:52 the other part of today's lesson is

7:55 using apostrophes to show contraction so

7:58 a contraction is the short form or the

8:00 reduced form of two words generally so

8:04 we use apostrophes to show or to kind of

8:06 represent missing letters that's one way

8:09 that you can think of the apostrophe use

8:11 here so apostrophes can be used to show

8:15 the missing letters in Words so what

8:18 does this mean let's take a look at some

8:19 examples for example when we write do

8:23 not in the reduced form or the

8:25 contracted form we use this spelling

8:27 right don't d-o-n apostrophe T so you

8:31 can think of this apostrophe as kind of

8:33 a replacement for the letter that's

8:35 missing right so we have do not o is

8:37 missing here it's kind of like we're

8:39 showing the O is gone with the

8:41 apostrophe so don't here's another

8:43 example we are we are becomes we're

8:47 right so again we have a letter missing

8:50 in this case it's the a we are becomes

8:52 we're so the apostrophe shows where that

8:56 letter used to be one more example I am

8:59 this becomes I'm again we have a missing

9:03 letter the a used to be right here we

9:05 have an apostrophe there instead so

9:07 apostrophes can be used in this way to

9:10 show that letters are missing from a

9:11 word so these are extremely extremely

9:14 common you probably know about these

9:16 already but I also want to talk about

9:18 another use that's typically done in

9:20 books and Other Stories those kinds of

9:23 things sometimes this apostrophe this

9:26 missing letter apostrophe is used at the

9:28 end of a word or sometimes even in the

9:31 middle it's a little bit rare usually

9:33 this is at the end of a word but

9:35 sometimes you'll see an apostrophe at

9:38 the end of a word to express a way of

9:41 speaking so this kind of sends tends to

9:43 sound a little more casual or sometimes

9:45 this is used to indicate like a

9:48 character a certain way of speaking so

9:50 let's look at some examples so you can

9:51 see what I mean here here's one I'm

9:54 thinking about what to make for dinner

9:55 I'm thinking about what to make for

9:57 dinner so first we have this contracted

9:59 form right the apostrophe here and then

10:02 we have this thinking thinking here the

10:05 apostrophe is at the end of the word so

10:08 we tend to see this use a lot in ing

10:11 verbs actually verbs that end in ing to

10:14 show that the G sound is not clearly

10:16 pronounced so I'm thinking about what to

10:18 make for dinner so this Lincoln is a

10:20 little bit different from thinking right

10:22 I'm thinking about what to make for

10:25 dinner would be the standard way to say

10:27 this right but this thinking sounds a

10:29 little bit more casual people may choose

10:32 to use this kind of thinking to express

10:35 a certain kind of casual level of

10:37 speaking or to express a kind of accent

10:40 something like that so that's what this

10:42 apostrophe at the end of an ing verb

10:45 means it means that g sound is missing

10:47 let's look at another example

10:49 we've been walking for hours we've been

10:52 walking for hours so here again we have

10:55 this basic contraction we have we've

10:58 been walking for hours so again there's

11:01 this apostrophe at the end of this ing

11:03 word right and the g is missing so the

11:06 apostrophe is showing us something is

11:08 missing and we've cut the word off early

11:10 so walking becomes walk-in walking we've

11:14 been walking for hours so this expresses

11:16 a kind of rough or casual manner of

11:19 speaking one more you're working hard you're working hard

11:23 you might hear people say this to you at

11:25 work like your co-workers might make

11:26 this comment to you you're working hard

11:28 again we have a basic contraction here

11:31 you're you are okay and here working so

11:35 the standard spelling is working with a

11:38 g at the end we have this apostrophe

11:40 here that shows something is missing

11:42 you're working hard so this sounds kind

11:44 of more casual a little more friendly

11:46 than you're working hard okay so that's

11:49 what you might see occasionally usually

11:51 we see this in text like stories and

11:54 maybe novels maybe short stories or

11:56 essays that kind of thing but oftentimes

11:59 people like to speak this way and

12:01 sometimes they want to text that way as

12:03 well too so if you see this in like a

12:05 text message or something that's what

12:07 this apostrophe at the end of the word

12:08 means and as I said you might see it in

12:11 the middle I suppose in certain places

12:13 you might even see it at the very

12:14 beginning of a word but that's an

12:16 indicator that's a sign that someone has

12:18 cut off usually like a letter or

12:20 something thing like that a very small

12:22 sound and they're showing that with the

12:23 apostrophe okay great so those are the

12:26 two key points that I want to talk about

12:27 for this lesson we use apostrophes to

12:30 show possession and we use apostrophes

12:32 for contractions to show missing letters

12:34 I want to finish this lesson by covering

12:36 a very common couple of questions some

12:39 very common errors some problem points

12:42 for Learners and for native speakers

12:44 this question box right here shows them

12:47 there are the differences between it's

12:49 with an apostrophe it's with no

12:51 apostrophe and who's with an apostrophe

12:54 s and who's h-o-s-e at the end here what is the

12:59 difference so let's talk about it's and

13:02 it's first it apostrophe s means it is it is

13:08 I.T no apostrophe s is the possessive so

13:13 this is an exception to what I talked

13:15 about over here of course that's like

13:17 kind of hard for you to remember I know

13:19 but thankfully it's just this one

13:21 there's only one that you need to

13:22 remember at this exception for so it's

13:25 with no apostrophe is the possessive

13:27 form okay it is is this it with an

13:31 apostrophe S at the end so this is one

13:34 tricky one to remember okay then the

13:37 second one is who's whose question so H

13:40 I'm sorry w-h-o apostrophe s means who

13:44 is who is w-h-o-s-e is the possessive so whose bag

13:51 is this right we're asking about

13:53 someone's possession whose bag is this

13:55 whose marker is this we use this

13:59 w-h-o-s-e word to do that who's with an

14:02 apostrophe s means who is like who's he

14:05 talking to right that's not a question

14:07 of possession so these were words sound

14:09 exactly the same when we are speaking

14:11 right but it's important to remember

14:14 that they are very different on paper so

14:16 keep these small differences in mind

14:18 because they do matter okay great so

14:21 this is a quick introduction to how to

14:23 use apostrophes this is a very basic

14:26 introduction to this very important

14:28 punctuation mark but these rules will

14:30 help you in the majority of situations

14:32 so keep this in mind of course if you

14:34 have any questions or comments or if you

14:36 want to practice making some apostrophe

14:38 words feel free to do so in the comment

14:40 section of this video also if you like

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14:51 English studies thanks very much for

14:52 watching this video and I will see you

14:54 again next time bye

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