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Lesson · Grade 4 · English Language Arts

Apostrophes: Missing Letters or Ownership, Never a Plural

  • Grade 4
  • English Language Arts
  • 1 min 45 s
  • British Columbia
  • BC4-EN-24

A short note about a lost phone is shown with its apostrophes missing or misplaced, and the words that go wrong light up red; a panel then sets out the two jobs of an apostrophe (standing in for missing letters, as in did not → didn't, and showing ownership, as in Sam's phone) and the one place it never goes (a plural such as bags). The same note reappears fixed, with each apostrophe marked in the colour of its job and the plural lit green with no apostrophe, ending on the recap that an apostrophe shows missing letters or ownership and never makes a plural.

Concept: Apostrophes

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In one sentence

The question this lesson answers

What does an apostrophe do, and where does it belong?

Here is a short note about a lost phone. Something is wrong with its apostrophes.

Transcript

What the lesson says

What does an apostrophe do, and where does it belong?

Here is a short note about a lost phone. Something is wrong with its apostrophes.

Some of these words are not real words, and others say the wrong thing. Sams looks like more than one Sam.

An apostrophe is a small mark with two jobs.

First, it stands in for missing letters when two words are squeezed into one. Did not becomes didn't.

Second, it shows ownership. For one owner, add an apostrophe and s, as in Sam's phone.

But an apostrophe never makes a plural. More than one bag is just bags, with no apostrophe.

Here is the same note with every apostrophe in the right place.

Didn't is did not with the o taken out, and the apostrophe sits right where the o was.

In the same way, it's is short for it is, and we've is short for we have.

Sam's phone means the phone belongs to Sam, so Sam gets an apostrophe and s.

Bags just means more than one bag, so it has no apostrophe at all.

Now every word is a real word, and the note says exactly what we mean.

One more tip. Its, meaning belonging to it, never takes an apostrophe. It's, with an apostrophe, always means it is or it has.

An apostrophe stands in for missing letters or shows ownership, and it never makes a plural.

Curriculum

Where this fits

British Columbia, Grade 4

English Language Arts, Language features, structures, and conventions: conventionsBC4-EN-24

Previous: Quotation Marks and Dialogue

British Columbia, Grade 5

English Language Arts, Language features, structures, and conventions: conventionsBC5-EN-26

Previous: Quotation Marks and DialogueNext: Capital Letters in Titles and Headings

British Columbia, Grade 6

English Language Arts, Language features, structures, and conventions: conventionsBC6-EN-30

Previous: Commas: a small pause that separates the parts of a sentenceNext: Quotation Marks and Dialogue

British Columbia, Grade 7

English Language Arts, Language features, structures, and conventions: conventionsBC7-EN-34

Previous: Commas: a small pause that separates the parts of a sentenceNext: Quotation Marks and Dialogue

This lesson is also listed in Grade 5, Grade 6 and Grade 7.

The outcomes and strands follow the British Columbia curriculum.

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