Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

My name's Mrs. Riley, and I'm here today to learn some grammar with you.

In today's lesson, we're going to be focusing on apostrophes and how we can use them to show possession.

So let's get started.

The outcome of today's lesson is to use an apostrophe accurately to signal singular possession or plural possession.

These will be our keywords for today's lesson.

Let's start off by saying each one out loud.

My turn.

Your turn.

Are you ready? Apostrophe for possession.

Singular.

Plural.

Great, well done.

An apostrophe for possession is a punctuation mark, like a full stop or a comma, that can be used to show if a noun belongs to another singular or plural noun.

So Mrs. Riley is my name.

That's a noun 'cause it's a naming word for a person.

And so if something belongs to me, another noun belongs to me, for example, my glasses, this is another noun, I can use an apostrophe to show that.

I could say Mrs. Riley's glasses and I would include an apostrophe to show that these glasses belong to me.

This noun belongs to this noun.

Singular means only one.

Plural means more than one, whether it's two or five or 5,000.

Anything that's more than one is plural.

In today's lesson, we have two learning cycles.

In our first learning cycle, we're going to be looking at apostrophes for singular possession.

And in our second learning cycle, we're going to look at apostrophe for plural possession.

So the example I gave earlier, Mrs. Riley's glasses, is singular possession because there's only one of me, so I'm singular.

Whereas in the second learning cycle, we'll be looking at plural.

So if we were going to say the women's glasses if there were lots of women.

Common nouns can be singular, which means only one, or plural, which means more than one.

If a noun is singular, this means there is only one.

One can.

If a noun is plural, this means there are more than one.

For example, there we can see some cans, six cans to be precise.

But we can see there that there are plural amount of cans.

There is more than one can.

Usually, not always, but usually, a plural common noun ends in S.

We can see that in this example.

If we have one can or if we have six cans, we've just added the letter S to turn this word from singular to plural.

A singular or plural noun can possess another noun.

Possess means own or be the owner of, just like I possess or own this pair of glasses.

Let's start by thinking about some singular nouns and their possessions.

Think of something that your teacher possesses.

Can you have some thinking time? What does your teacher possess or own? Here's an example.

Your teacher's stickers.

The stickers that belong to your teacher.

Now think of something that a rabbit possesses.

What's something that belongs to a rabbit? This one's a bit more tricky, isn't it? Because a rabbit's not going to have a pair of glasses or a pack of stickers or a cup of tea or a phone.

So what might a rabbit possess? Have some thinking time.

Here's an example.

The ears that belong to a rabbit.

What does the singular noun possess in each example? Let's check what we've just learned.

A, the petals that belong to the rose.

So in this example, the singular noun is the rose.

So what does the rose possess in that example? B, the lid that belongs to the pen.

C, a video game that belongs to a girl.

So in each example, you're trying to think of the thing that the noun possesses.

For example, if it was the glasses that belonged to Mrs. Riley, the thing that would I would possess would be the glasses.

Can you pause the video while you complete this task? Let's see how you got on.

So in A, it is the petals that belong to the rose.

The rose possess the petals.

In B, the pen possesses the lid.

The lid belongs to the pen.

And in C, the video game is the thing that the girl possesses or owns.

If we wanted to write a sentence with one of these examples, let's take the example of the petals that belong to the rose in A, we could write this.

I think that the petals that belong to the rose are some of the most beautiful and delicate I've ever seen.

However, this sentence does not flow very well and it's also very long.

Let's look at a more efficient way to write this sentence.

When a singular noun possesses another noun, we usually add 's after the first noun.

This is an apostrophe for singular possession.

For example, the rose's petals.

The reason this is singular possession is because the rose is singular, there is one rose and it's possession because the petals belong to the rose.

The rose owns or possesses the petals, and that's why it's singular possession.

And the apostrophe shows us or signals that.

In this example, the pen's lid.

One pen, so it's singular and it possesses or owns the lid.

We have the 's to show that.

The pen's lid.

If we took away the apostrophe in that example, and we just said the pens lid, it would just look like pens, plural.

But there's not plural pens, there's just one, and that is why the apostrophe is so important.

It shows that there's one pen, but that something belongs to the pen, and in this example, it's the lid.

A girl's video game.

Again, if we took away that apostrophe, it would just look like we were talking about lots of girls, but we've only got one girl and the video game belongs to her.

In each of these examples, we've got the singular noun, the rose, the pen, the girl.

Each of those is singular.

There's only one.

And then we've got the noun that belongs to the singular noun, the petals, the lid, the video game.

So when we put these together with the pair, we've got the rose's petals, the pen's lid, the girl's video game, and we use the apostrophe to show that one of the nouns belongs to the other one.

Without that apostrophe signalling possession to the reader, we might just think that there were lots of roses or lots of pens or lots of girls.

So the apostrophe is really important.

The singular noun and its possession come as a pair.

Rose's petals, pen's lids, girl's video game.

So now we can write the sentence like this.

I think that the rose's petals are some of the most beautiful and delicate I've ever seen.

There's my apostrophe to show the possession that the petals are possessed or are owned by the rose.

The apostrophe shows singular possession.

It's the singular noun paired with its possession is the rose's petals.

This sentence now flows and it is much shorter, and the meaning is also clear.

Here are some more examples of using an apostrophe for possession when a singular noun possesses something.

Izzy's cat has white stripes.

The book's illustrations are done in pastel.

Jun's dad is great at football.

An optician's torch is very useful.

An optician is someone who, it's like a doctor for your eyes and they see if you need glasses.

We have used an apostrophe for singular possession in each example.

I would like you just to pause the video here and in each example, I would like you to point at the apostrophe.

Off you go.

Well done.

Hopefully you spotted an apostrophe in each of those examples.

So if we take this example, Jun's dad is great at football, we can see that Jun is the singular noun.

The 's comes after the singular noun.

And then we have dad, which is the noun that belongs.

Jun's dad.

The dad belongs to Jun.

But instead we can just say Jun's dad with an 's.

Let's check what we've just learnt.

What does the singular noun possess or own in each example? A, the laptop's screen cracked in front of my eyes.

So you're looking for the thing that the laptop owns or possesses.

B, a tree's branches can be very heavy.

And C, where is Aisha's scarf? So you need to look for what the singular noun possesses.

What's the thing that belongs to the singular noun? And the best way you're going to find it is by looking for that apostrophe.

Remember, it comes as a pair.

So it'll be the second word in that pair.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

So in the first example, we have the screen.

The screen belongs to the laptop.

The laptop's screen cracked in front of my eyes.

A tree's branches can be very heavy.

It's the branches that belong to the tree.

Where is Aisha's scarf? It's the scarf that belongs to Aisha.

And hopefully you can see there Aisha's scarf, there's our pair in the first word, which is the singular noun.

That's where we have our 's.

And then it's followed by the thing that it possesses or owns.

If the singular noun that owns another noun ends in an S, we put the apostrophe after the S.

So this is one of those rules that we just need to learn.

It's an exception.

King Charles' crown.

Ms. Douglas' son.

The bus' wheels.

Now, in each of those examples, we still have a singular noun.

King Charles.

There's one King Charles, one Ms. Douglas, and one bus.

So we still have a singular noun, and we still have the noun that belongs to the singular noun, the crown, the sun, the wheels.

But normally we would do 's.

But in these examples, the singular nouns end in an S.

So we don't want to have s's.

So instead we just have an apostrophe.

Have a look, maybe pause the video and just really focus on that point at those three apostrophes just so you can see that they're after the S.

Well done.

So we do not add another S after the apostrophe.

Let's check what we've just learnt.

The whiteboard that belongs to the class is broken.

So there's one class, let's imagine it's 3B.

The class is called 3B.

They have a whiteboard and it's broken.

Which sentence shows this possession correctly with an apostrophe? So each one says the class' is whiteboard is broken, so I won't read them all out.

But the important thing you are looking at is which one has got an apostrophe used correctly to show the possession? So pause the video now while you think about your answer.

Okay, well done if you identified that C is correct.

In B, there is no apostrophe.

And in A, there is an apostrophe, but class is spelled incorrectly and we've got an 's.

In C, we've got the singular noun, which is class and because it ends in an S, we just use an apostrophe.

The class' whiteboard is broken, the whiteboard belongs to the class.

It's time for your first task.

In this task, I would like you to write a sentence using each idea using an apostrophe for singular possession accurately.

I'm going to show you what that looks like now.

Here's an example.

So in this example, the idea is the crayons that belong to the child.

So I'm taking that idea.

I'm first of all thinking what belongs to what? The crayons that belong to the child.

So that's going to be the child's crayons.

There's one child, it doesn't end in an S.

So I'm going to say the child's crayons, child's crayons.

But now I'm going to think of a sentence.

I can't just say child's crayons.

So I'm going to think of a sentence and here my example is dad tidied up because the child's crayons were all over the floor.

Here's your ideas.

The first idea is the players that belong to the team.

The second is the jacket that belongs to Andeep.

The third is the scent, which is a smell, that belongs to the flower.

And the fourth is the books that belong to Mr. Jones.

So if we were going to take that last example, you'd think, right, what's the singular noun? Mr. Jones.

And what's the thing that belongs to him? The book.

Mr. Jones' book.

Then you're going to think about where the apostrophe's going to go.

That's the most important thing.

Mr. Jones' book.

And once you've thought about where the apostrophe is going to go, you can then think of your whole sentence, full sentence about Mr. Jones' book.

Perhaps it might be something like Mr. Jones' book had 345 pages, or Mr. Jones' book had been left on the bus.

There's lots of different examples that you could come up with.

So you're going to start with number one.

Pause the video now, and good luck with this task.

Well done.

Let's go through some answers, some examples.

So the first one is the team's players.

Now, regardless of what your sentence is, everyone, just check that important thing, the team's players.

The team is the singular noun.

The players is what belongs to the team.

So we have the team's players, the team's players.

And this example says where are the team's players doing their warmup session? And there's a question mark at the end because we're asking a question.

Number two, Andeep's jacket has been lost again.

Andeep is the singular noun.

The jacket belongs to him.

It doesn't end in an S.

So we have 's after Andeep.

Number three, as I smell the flower's scent, I think about sweet honey.

The scent belongs to the flower.

There is one flower, it's a singular noun.

It doesn't end in an S, so we have 's after flower.

Flower's scent.

The head teacher came into year two to analyse Mr. Jones' books.

Now, analyse means that they're going to come and look at his books and maybe discuss them and think about things that are good and bad about them.

Mr. Jones is the singular noun but this time, it ends in an S.

So this time, this is the exception, we add the apostrophe after the S.

The books belong to Mr. Jones.

We just add an apostrophe because this one ends in an S, the singular noun ends in an S.

Well done if you spotted that one 'cause that one was quite tricky at the end there.

Okay, it's time for our second learning cycle.

We've already looked at apostrophes for singular, which is just one possession when we have one common noun.

And now we're going to look at apostrophes when we have more than one common noun, for plural possession.

Most plural nouns in English end in S.

Let's see some examples.

Babies, plants, glasses, monkeys, cameras, bananas.

All of these things end in the letter S.

If we want to say that the flesh belongs to the bananas, we could say this, the flesh belonging to the bananas is sweet, but again, this is a very long way to say it.

So instead, let's use an apostrophe.

The plural word bananas already ends in S.

So we add the apostrophe after the S.

We place the word flesh straight after bananas to make a pair.

Here's the improved sentence.

The bananas' flesh is sweet.

There's our pair, bananas' flesh.

And because bananas is plural, there's more than one we put the apostrophe after the S to show that.

If we put the apostrophe before the S, we would be talking about one banana.

So if we had, imagine you are holding one banana and you peel it and you say, hmm, the banana's flesh is sweet, then you'd have banana's.

But then imagine you've peeled 10 bananas to make a banana cake, and you've peeled them all and put them all into a bowl to mash them up.

And about all those bananas, plural, the bananas' flesh is sweet.

Now, this time, we need to show there's more than one, that it's plural.

So now we're going to put the apostrophe after the S.

And that's really important.

When a plural noun possesses another noun, owns another noun, we add the apostrophe for possession after the S, after the what? The S.

First, let's be sure that we know what belongs to the plural noun.

When researching adaptations that belong to monkeys, we must use websites that we can trust.

Okay, when researching adaptations that belong to monkeys, we must use websites that we can trust.

So here's the thing that belongs to the plural noun.

The adaptations that belong to the monkeys.

So instead, we could say this: when researching monkeys' adaptations, we must use websites that we can trust.

We have turned those one, two, three, four, five words into just that pair.

So we have turned adaptations that belong to monkeys, five words, into just the pair monkeys' adaptations, using that amazing piece of punctuation, the apostrophe.

Because there's not just one monkey, there's lots, it's plural, we've added the apostrophe after the S.

Jun scratched the lenses that belonged to his glasses.

Again, a much quicker way of saying this would be Jun scratched his glasses' lenses.

What belongs to the plural noun in each example? Let's check what we've just learnt.

I would like you to circle the plural nouns and the nouns they possess.

A, Sophia saw aphids on the plants' leaves.

B, the babies' buggies were parked neatly.

C, there were lions' dens all over the Savannah.

For each one, circle the plural nouns that own something and then the nouns that they possess.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

So in A, we've got the plants' leaves.

The plants is the plural noun and the leaves is the thing that they possess or own.

In B, we've got the babies' buggies.

Babies is the plural noun, there's more than one baby, and the buggies is the thing or the noun that they possess.

And we've got the apostrophe after the S.

In C, it's the lions' den.

Lions is the plural noun.

There's more than one lion.

And dens is the noun or are the nouns that they possess.

And we've got the apostrophe after the S to show that it's plural possession.

Remember that not all plural nouns end in S.

Again, this is one of those exceptions that we just need to learn.

Let's look at some nouns and plural nouns where there's more than one, but it doesn't end in S.

Children.

So if you are talking about the children, you're talking about more than one but there's no S at the end.

Men, women, geese, feet, teeth and mice.

All of these nouns are plural, but none of them end in an S.

So sometimes we need to just remember that.

For these plural nouns, we just add 's as we do for our singular nouns.

The children's school, the men's books, the women's jobs, the geese's nests, the mice's cheese.

So we can see there that just as we learned about in learning cycle one where we learned that we add an 's after singular nouns, we do the same thing for plural nouns that don't end in an S.

The children's school.

So you might think, well, how would the reader know that we're talking about more than one child? But if it was one child, we'd say the child's school or the man's books, or the woman with an A 'ss jobs, the goose's nest, the mouse's cheese.

So we know that these are plural because we use a different word.

Children, mice, geese.

So therefore, we can just use an 's because the word, the noun in itself tells us that this is plural.

We don't need an S to show us.

To decide how to use the apostrophe for possession with plural nouns, we need to follow these steps.

So are you ready? Maybe just quickly sit up before I tell you the secret steps.

You take the noun, for example, foot or tree.

There's my noun.

You make it plural, feet, or what would the plural be? So one tree or three trees.

You then decide does the plural end in an S? Does feet end in an S? Yes or no? No.

Does trees end in an S, yes or no? Yes.

So if it doesn't end in an S, we add 's.

If it does end in an S, we just add an apostrophe after the S that's already there.

So then we would have the feet's muscles, the trees' leaves.

So there are our steps of how to succeed when we're using apostrophes for plural possession.

Take the noun, foot, make it plural, feet.

Does it end in an S? No.

So we add 's.

Or if it does, we just add the apostrophe after the S.

Okay, let's check what we've just learned.

Which sentence uses the apostrophe for plural possession correctly? Each sentence says the cameras' flashes were bright on the red carpet.

Remember, this is for plural possession.

So this means there's not one camera flashing, there's lots of cameras flashing.

So which of these sentences is correct? Pause the video now.

Well done.

The correct answer is A.

The cameras' flashes were bright on the red carpet.

The reason that one is correct is because there's more than one camera.

So it should be cameras.

Remember our step, take the noun, camera, make it plural, cameras.

If it ends in an S, we just add an apostrophe after the S.

In B, we've got an apostrophe that would be used correctly if it was singular, if it was one camera flashes.

But we know in this question, it said which is used for plural possession correctly? And in the third one, it's definitely not correct because they have missed out on any apostrophe there.

Okay, it's time for your final task of today's lesson.

I would like you to write a sentence using each idea using an apostrophe, this time for plural possession accurately.

This is like what we did for our task at the end of learning cycle one.

Again, I'll show you an example.

The idea in this example is the votes that belong to the people.

So first, I'm trying to find which is my plural noun? The people.

And what belongs to them? The votes.

There's my pair.

People's votes.

People's votes.

Now, people, there's my plural noun, one person, but plural people.

Does it end in an S? No.

So I'm going to add my 's, people's votes.

Then I'm going to build my sentence and I can think of any sentence.

You'll think of lots I'm sure.

The officials counted the people's votes carefully.

There's my sentence.

So first of all, I identified what my plural noun is.

Then I thought about what do they possess? Then I thought about my rule.

If it ends in an S or if it doesn't, and where my apostrophe's going to go.

And once I'm happy with that pair, people's votes, or whatever your example is, then I thought about my sentence that could go around that pair of words.

So your ideas are here.

Number one, the wings that belong to the hummingbirds.

Two, the lids that belong to the pans.

Three, the stems that belong to the flowers.

Four, the puzzles that belong to the children.

So let's take that last example.

I would think, hmm, what is my plural noun? Children.

What belongs to them? Puzzles.

There's my pair.

Children's puzzles.

Does my plural noun, children, end in an S? Then I'm thinking about where my apostrophe rule's going to go.

And then I'm thinking children's puzzles.

And then I'm going to build my sentence around that.

So pause the video now and start with number one.

Good luck.

Well done.

Let's go through the answers together, or some examples together.

Number one, did you know that hummingbirds' wings vibrate very quickly? In this example, my plural noun was hummingbirds.

There's more than one.

We're talking about not just one hummingbird, but we're talking about all hummingbirds' wings vibrate very quickly.

The thing that belongs to them are the wings, hummingbirds' wings.

So there's my pair.

Hummingbirds, it ends in an S.

So I'm going to add my apostrophe after the S.

The pans' lids made an almighty racket because they had cluttered to the floor.

The pans is my plural noun.

The lids is what belongs to them.

Pans, it ends in an S, so my apostrophe comes after the S.

When you look carefully at the flowers' stems, you can see how strong they are.

Flowers is my plural noun.

Flowers, it ends in an S.

So I've added an apostrophe after the S to show the stems belong to the flowers.

And finally, "Don't forget the children's puzzles!" Mum called to Dad.

Children's puzzles.

Children is my plural noun.

Children is plural, but it doesn't end in an S.

So this time I'm doing an 's.

The puzzles belong to the children.

Well done for completing that task.

Let's summarise what we've learned today.

An apostrophe is an important punctuation mark that has more than one purpose.

We've today learned the purpose of showing possession.

Apostrophes can be used to signal, that means to show, the possession of a noun by singular or plural nouns.

So if we see an apostrophe, it's like a signal to the reader that something owns something else.

Usually the apostrophe for possession is placed before the S at the end of a singular noun, when there's one, and after the S at the end of a plural noun.

Apostrophes for possession make meaning clear in sentences.

So well done for all your hard work today.

I hope now you feel really confident to use apostrophes in your own writing.

When you're reading this week, make sure you look out for any apostrophes.

And when you see them think, is it being used to show possession? Is it showing singular possession or plural possession? Has the apostrophe gone before the S or after the S? Because that's going to really help you to just deepen your understanding of what we've learned today and then you're going to be really ready to use apostrophes in your own writing.

Thank you so much for learning with me today and hopefully I'll see you for some more learning another time.