Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

My name's Mrs. Tweedie, and I'm here to teach you this Year 6 lesson all about apostrophes.

Let's get started.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to accurately punctuate sentences including apostrophes for contraction, singular possession, or plural possession.

Our keywords for today's lesson are here.

My turn.

Your turn.

Apostrophe for contraction.

Apostrophe for possession.

Singular.

Plural.

Well done.

An apostrophe for contraction is a punctuation mark used to contract two words together.

An apostrophe for possession is a punctuation mark used to show if a noun belongs to another singular or plural noun.

Singular means only one.

Plural means more than one.

The lesson outline for today looks like this.

We'll start with apostrophes for contraction.

In English, particularly when we're speaking or writing informally, we use contracted forms to show two words connected together.

I'll see you in a minute.

Jun asked, "Who's there?" "I wouldn't do that!" exclaimed Izzy.

"Don't interrupt!" snapped Miss O'Neill.

In each of these sentences in purple, you can see a contracted form of two words.

In the first, I will has been contracted to I'll.

In the second, who is has been contracted to who's.

In the third, would not has been contracted to wouldn't.

And in the fourth, do not has been contracted to don't.

The contracted form is made up of two words pushed together with one apostrophe.

In this example, who is can be pushed together with an apostrophe to make who's.

Let's check your understanding.

What are the words represented by the contracted form in each piece of direct speech? Pause the video now whilst you decide.

Welcome back.

Well done.

In a, where's is the contracted form of where is.

In b, who've is the contracted form of who have.

In c, can't is the contracted form of cannot.

And in d, I'd is the contracted form of I would.

Great work.

An apostrophe can be used for contraction where we push two words together to make the shorter contracted form.

She plus had can be contracted to she'd.

The words to be contracted are she and had.

The contraction has been formed using the apostrophe.

The apostrophe usually takes the place of the letters that have been removed from the start of the second word.

He and would can be contracted by removing the letters W-O-U-L from the second word and replacing them with an apostrophe to make he'd.

You plus are can be contracted by removing the A from are, replacing it with an apostrophe, and making the word you're.

Who plus had can be contracted by removing the letters H-A from had to make the contracted form, that's right, who'd.

Let's check your understanding.

What is the contracted form of each of the following pairs of words? Pause the video now.

Welcome back.

In a, what is is contracted to what's.

Will have is contracted to will've, where the H and A of have are replaced by the apostrophe.

In c, they will is contracted to they'll, where W-I in will are replaced by the apostrophe.

And in she would, the contracted form is she'd, where W-O-U-L from would are replaced with the apostrophe.

Great work.

Some contractions drop a letter from inside a word.

Would and not can be contracted by removing the O and replacing with the apostrophe to make wouldn't.

Some contractions add in a letter.

Will and not can be contracted by removing some letters from the first word and the O from the second word to make won't.

All contractions using not put the apostrophe between the N and the T of not.

Did plus not, the O is removed to make didn't.

Should plus not, the O is removed to make shouldn't.

Well done.

What is the contracted form of each of the following pairs of words? Pause the video now.

Welcome back.

Great thinking.

In a, were plus not can be contracted to weren't.

The O is replaced by the apostrophe.

Shall not contracted is shan't, where the O and the double L from shall is replaced by the apostrophe.

Must not is contracted to mustn't, where the O is replaced with the apostrophe.

And could not is contracted to couldn't, again, where just the O from not is replaced by the apostrophe.

Well done.

Let's now think about the word it's.

In purple here, the word it's, I-T apostrophe S, is a contraction for it is.

It and is have been pushed together or contracted by removing the I of is and replacing it with the apostrophe.

It's such a nuisance.

It's a privilege to be here.

It's rude to interrupt.

I'm afraid it's not ready.

In each of these four sentences, you can see the it's contraction in purple.

In every case, you could pull out those words to make it is and the sentence would make sense.

In the first, it is such a nuisance, can be shortened to it's such a nuisance.

In the second, it is a privilege to be here, can be shortened to it's a privilege to be here.

It is rude can be shortened to it's rude to interrupt in the third.

And in the fourth, I'm afraid it is or it's not ready can be shortened to it's with the apostrophe.

Now the word its, spelled I-T-S with no apostrophe, is not a contraction.

It shows what belongs to it in the sentence.

Let's see this in sentence context so we can understand what it means.

The dog lay on its stomach.

The yacht lost its sails in the storm.

The government changed its mind.

The cat pondered its choices.

In each of these four sentences, you can see its, I-T-S, in purple working to show something belonging to it.

In the first, the dog is it and its stomach belongs to it.

In the second, the yacht is it and its sails belong to it.

In the third, the government is it and its mind belongs to it.

And in the fourth, the cat is it and its choices belong to it.

Great work.

The apostrophes have been removed from these sentences.

Can you decide which sentences should have an apostrophe for contraction and which are just right? Pause the video now.

Welcome back.

You're right.

In a, we do need an apostrophe.

The sentence should read it is a marvellous achievement, and we can show that with the contraction it's with the apostrophe.

In b, we don't need an apostrophe because the temperature belongs to it.

In c, we do need an apostrophe.

It is a tricky pronunciation makes sense, so we show that with the contracted form of it's with the apostrophe.

And in d, we don't need an apostrophe.

The muscles belong to it.

It's time for your first task.

You are going to rewrite each of the sentences using apostrophes for contraction wherever they are needed and it is appropriate.

Here are the six sentences.

I want you to read them so carefully, seeing where there should be an apostrophe for contraction in each one and rewriting it out accurately.

Good luck.

Pause the video now.

Welcome back, and well done for all your careful thinking and careful work.

Here are the six sentences accurately rewritten.

One, "You've got a great opportunity here," said Miss Neil, "and I don't want you to miss it." Two, "When he's ready," Jacob muttered, "we'll finally get going." Three, "I can't make it," sighed Aisha, "but Laura'll come if she's free." Wow, that one had three contractions.

Well done if you found all three.

Four, Mr. Martinez bellowed, "I'll be keeping in anyone who's decided not to finish their work." Five, "We're lucky to go to this school," smiled Izzy, "because it's a privilege to have such good teachers!" Six, Andeep asked, "What're you going to do when you've finished eating?" Well done for all your hard and meticulous work, reading, checking so carefully, and rewriting those sentences.

It is time to move on to our second section of our lesson.

Apostrophes for singular possession.

You know that a noun is a person, a place, or a thing.

Nouns can be singular or plural.

Let's have a look at some singular nouns.

Soldier, stomach, suggestion, vehicle.

These are all singular because there's only one of them.

Let's have a look at some plural nouns.

Soldiers, stomachs, suggestions, vehicles.

These are all plural because there are more than one of them.

A singular or plural noun can possess another singular or plural noun.

Let's just say that again.

A singular or plural noun can possess or own another singular or plural noun.

From now on on this slide the singular nouns will be boxed with green and the plural will be boxed with black.

The suggestion belonging to Sam.

Beliefs belonging to Lucas.

Beliefs belonging to children.

These are all noun phrases.

The suggestion is a singular noun.

Sam is a singular noun.

Both of these are only one.

Beliefs is a plural noun.

Lucas is a singular noun.

Beliefs is, as you know now, a plural noun and children is a plural noun.

When a singular noun possesses another noun, we usually add apostrophe S to the first noun.

This is an apostrophe for singular possession.

You say that back to me.

This is an apostrophe for singular possession.

Well done.

Laura's suggestion.

Laura's determination.

Laura's shoulders.

In each of these cases, you can see the singular noun, Laura, followed by apostrophe S and the second noun that belongs to the singular noun, in this case Laura.

Let's check your understanding so far.

Sofia has achieved many impressive things this year.

Which sentence out of a, b and c shows the possession correctly with an apostrophe? Pause the video as you decide.

Welcome back.

Well done.

It was c.

Sofia's achievements are very impressive.

Sofia is a singular noun.

We place the apostrophe after the end of her name and an S afterwards to show the next noun, her achievements, that belong to her.

Well done.

Sometimes we place adjectives between the singular noun and the noun it possesses.

This would be to add detail for our reader in our writing to make our writing more interesting to read.

We use the apostrophe in exactly the same way.

We raised the yacht's vast sails.

The sails belong to the singular yacht.

We've just added the adjective vast to add more detail.

Jun's mischievous smile made me chuckle.

Jun is the singular noun.

His smile belongs to him.

We have added the adjective mischievous to describe his smile.

Mr. Martinez dismissed Izzy's ludicrous suggestion.

Izzy is the singular noun.

Suggestion is the noun that belongs to her.

Ludicrous is an adjective to describe the suggestion.

Sofia's native language is Romanian.

Sofia is the singular noun.

The language is the noun that belongs to her.

Native is the adjective to describe that noun.

We have used an apostrophe for singular possession in each of these four sentences.

The yacht, Jun, Izzy, Sofia, each one is followed by the apostrophe S.

Then in this case, you can see the adjective is placed before the noun that belongs to the first singular noun.

Let's check your understanding.

Imagine this, Andeep has several suggestions about what to do.

Which sentence shows the possession correctly with an apostrophe? Is it a, b, or c? Pause the video now while you decide.

Welcome back and well done.

It was b.

Lucas disagreed with Andeep's suggestions.

Andeep is our singular noun.

The suggestions are the noun that belong to Andeep.

We show the possession with an apostrophe S after the end of Andeep's name.

Now, if a singular noun that owns something ends in S anyway, like the singular noun James, or Lucas, or Carlos, or Miss Douglas, we usually just add an apostrophe after the S that ends their name.

However, we can also add apostrophe S.

In this example, you can see that working.

James ends in S anyway, even though it's a singular noun.

We can add an apostrophe S afterwards to show that he is possessing something.

In this case, the book.

Both versions are correct, but the first example is more commonly used.

Lucas' rumbling stomach.

The bus' wheels.

The glass' shining surface.

In each example, the first noun is a singular noun that ends in S.

The apostrophe is placed after the final S of the singular noun.

The second noun is the noun that belongs to the first singular noun.

The stomach belongs to Lucas.

The wheels belong to the bus.

The surface belongs to the glass.

Let's check your understanding.

Lucas keeps interrupting Mr. Martinez.

Which sentence shows the possession correctly with an apostrophe, a, b, or c? Pause the video now whilst you decide.

Welcome back and well done.

It was C.

Mr. Martinez ignored Lucas' constant interruptions.

Lucas is a singular noun that ends in S.

The apostrophe is placed after the S that ends his name.

The interruptions are the noun that belong to Lucas.

Constant is just an adjective to describe those interruptions.

Great job.

It's now time for Task B.

You are going to write a sentence using each idea using an apostrophe for singular possession.

If you can, you're going to add an adjective into your sentence.

Here's an example.

The signature belonging to Miss O'Neill can be simplified to Miss O'Neill's signature.

And you'll see that I've added that into sentence context.

I've thought of a sentence all by myself in which Miss O'Neill's signature would fit, and I have come up with this sentence.

Miss O'Neill's signature was at the bottom of the letter.

Here are the six noun phrases for you to turn into an apostrophe for singular possession phrase that you are then going to add into a sentence.

Remember, if you can add, an adjective.

Good luck.

Lots of hard thinking to do in this task, and I'll see you back here when you've had a go at your six sentences.

Pause the video now.

Well done and welcome back.

So much hard work there that you were doing independently.

Let's see how you got on.

My example sentences will be different to yours, and that's okay, but you can check if you have placed your apostrophes correctly to show your singular possession.

Here was my example one.

The nurse looked carefully at Jacob's purple bruise.

Jacob ends in a B, not an S, so the apostrophe is placed and then an S before the noun that belongs to him.

I borrowed Carlos' or Carlos's dictionary so that I could check his spelling.

Now here Carlos ends in S, even though he's a singular man, so you could either have added the apostrophe afterwards or added the apostrophe afterwards and a second S to show singular possession.

Here's three.

Our country's Parliament is located in London.

Parliament belongs to country.

Country ends in Y, so I've added an apostrophe and an S to show singular possession.

Four, I received a consequence because I broke the school's strict behaviour system.

Five, the room's temperature was far too high.

Six, I struggled to learn the word's difficult pronunciation.

And in this final example, you can see the singular noun, word, followed by apostrophe S, followed by an adjective to describe the noun that belongs to the first singular noun.

Pronunciation belongs to word.

Difficult describes pronunciation.

So much good learning there.

So much hard thinking.

Well done.

Now it's time to move on to our final part of our lesson, apostrophes for plural possession.

Now you know that most plural nouns in English end in S.

Yachts, shoulders, muscles, soldiers, languages, vegetables.

These are all plural nouns that end in S.

Let's imagine this.

The yachts have billowing sails.

Yachts is a plural noun.

The word yachts already ends in S.

We add the apostrophe after the S if we want to show plural possession like this.

The yachts' billowing sails fluttered in the wind.

The billowing sails belong to the yachts.

Because yachts is plural and because it ends in S, we add the apostrophe after the word yachts and nothing else afterwards.

If we had added the apostrophe before the S and after the ending T of yacht, we would be showing singular possession.

When a plural noun possesses another noun, we usually add the apostrophe for possession after the S.

The girls made several suggestions.

We can add this into sentence context to say we listened to the girls' suggestions.

The suggestions belong to the girls.

The girls are plural, so the apostrophe is placed after the final S of girls.

The symbols have different meanings.

We could say she studied the symbols' meanings.

Again, symbols is a plural noun.

The meanings belong to the symbols.

In order to show that symbols is plural, we place the apostrophe after the final S of the plural noun symbols.

The rooms have different temperatures.

We could say I measured the rooms' temperatures.

Again, temperatures is the noun that belongs to the plural noun rooms. We place the apostrophe after the S of rooms to show that we're dealing with a plural noun, not a singular noun.

Suggestions, symbols, rooms. These are all plural nouns ending in S, and so the noun that belongs to them is placed after an apostrophe after the final S in the sentence.

Let's check your understanding.

How would the apostrophe for plural possession be used for each of these ideas? And there's an example to help you.

The weapons belonging to the soldiers can be shortened to the soldiers' weapons where the apostrophe is placed after the S of the plural noun soldiers.

Your turn to pause the video and think about how a, b, and c noun phrases can be shortened to a phrase involving an apostrophe for plural possession.

Pause the video now.

Well done and welcome back.

In a, the teachers' conversations, where the apostrophe is placed after the S of the plural noun teachers shows that the conversations belong to the teachers.

In b, the neighbours' loud voices, again, the apostrophe is placed after the S of the plural noun neighbours.

And in C, the girls' many interruptions.

Again, the apostrophe is placed after the S of the plural noun girls to show the many interruptions that belong to them.

Well done.

Now of course, it can't be as simple as this because English is a tricky and complex language, and part of the reason that we love it.

Not all plural nouns end in S.

Children, men, women, geese, feet, people, sheep.

For these plural nouns, we need to do something different.

We just add apostrophe S as we would for singular nouns.

Children's ideas, men's prejudices, women's suggestions, geese's strong wings, people's recommendations.

We can see that just like for a singular noun, even though these are all plural nouns, we add apostrophe S to show the second noun that belongs to our first plural noun.

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

First, take the noun, child or building, second, make it plural, children or buildings.

Third, hmm, does the plural noun end in S? In the case of children, no.

In the case of buildings, yes.

So now if it does not end in S, we add apostrophe S to show possession.

If the plural noun does end in S, we add an apostrophe after the S to show plural possession.

The children's beliefs.

The buildings' walls.

Let's check for understanding.

Which sentence uses an apostrophe for plural possession correctly? Hmm, I can see the field belongs to the sheep in each example.

Think about what we've learnt about the first plural noun, whether it ends in S or not.

Pause the video now.

Welcome back, and you're right, it was b.

Sheep is a plural noun.

It doesn't end in S.

We add apostrophe S and then the noun that belongs to it to show plural possession.

Well done.

It's time for your final task.

You are going to write a sentence for each idea using an apostrophe for plural possession.

Again, here's an example to help you.

Here's the noun phrase.

The stomachs belonging to the cows.

I can shorten that using an apostrophe for plural possession to say the cows' stomachs.

And I've added it into sentence context, and I've said the cows' stomachs were busy digesting grass.

You are going to use the same idea and take each of the six noun phrases, convert them into a noun phrase using an apostrophe for plural possession, and add them into sentence context.

There's lots of hard thinking to be done here, so take your time as you pause the video and complete Task C.

Welcome back and well done for all of your really hard work.

Let's look at the example sentences with the examples of apostrophe for a plural possession that I've written for you.

Just like before in Task B, your ideas will be different to mine, but you can check yours against mine to see that your apostrophes are placed accurately.

One, Miss O'Neill listened carefully to the children's suggestions.

Children does not end an S, so I've had to add an apostrophe and an S before showing suggestions being the noun that belongs to the plural noun children.

Two, there was only a short queue outside the men's bathroom.

This one behaves just like the first one where men does not end an S, just like children did not end in S.

Three, the government has to consider people's ideas when it makes laws.

Again, people ends in E, the apostrophe and an S is placed after the word people to show ideas that belong to them.

Four, we peeled the vegetables' skins with sharp knives.

Now here vegetables is our plural noun and it does end in S, so I've just added the apostrophe and then skins, which belongs to the vegetables.

Five, in some countries, women's opportunities are very limited by law.

This one behaves like one, two, and three.

Six, the adults' prejudices made them act poorly.

This one behaves like number four, because adults, the plural noun, ends in S.

I've just added the apostrophe and then the word prejudices to show the noun that belongs to my first plural noun.

Wow, well done all of you for your fantastic work in Task C.

This brings us to the end of our lesson.

We have learned that apostrophes can be used to show contraction and possession.

An apostrophe for contraction allows us to join two words together into a shorter contracted form.

We often use these in direct speech.

An apostrophe for singular possession helps us show that a noun belongs to just one noun.

An apostrophe for plural possession helps us show that a noun belongs to more than one other noun.

You should feel really proud of yourselves for learning or revising all these different rules for how to use the apostrophe in English.

I hope that you can apply them to your writing soon and that you can enjoy all the mastery of the punctuation that you've learned today.

See you again soon.

Bye.