Apostrophes have two main uses - to show ownership or to show that letters are missing from a word.
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An apostrophe is used to show ownership, that an object or idea is associated with a particular person or thing.
The pupil's books were left at the office. NB: one pupil's books
The pupils' books were left at the office. NB: several pupils' books
The school's motto was "Virtus Pollet".
The doctor's consulting room was open.
Learn the rule! Follow these steps and you'll get them right every time.
NB: Possessives such as yours, theirs, its, ours, hers, his, whose don't have apostrophes:
Is this book yours?
Theirs is the car over there.
The kitten found its toy mouse.
That car is ours, but we are about to swap it for a new one.
The notebook was hers.
After a hard four sets, the tennis match was finally his.
Whose computers are those?
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Try this activity about apostrophes.
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An apostrophe is used to show that letters have been missed out of words.
| With apostrophe | Without apostrophe |
| Don't do that! | Do not do that! |
| It's not right. | It is not right. |
| They're late | They are late. |
| We've lost the game. | We have lost the game. |
| She won't be there. | She will not be there. |
| Let's go! | Let us go! |
| They'd won. | They had won. |
N.B. the difference between it's and its:
It's = it is. (as in "It is never too late.")
Its = belonging to it. (as in "The cat ate its food.")
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Get some more practice using apostrophes.