Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Sparkle English, my YouTube channel where I teach you
how to improve your level of English. In today's video, I'm going to teach you about plurals
and apostrophes. We are going to talk about the grocer's apostrophe, which is a common
punctuation error. I see this error in comments all over my YouTube channel. So I thought this
was an important error to talk about, so you can improve your English writing skills. First of all,
a grocer's apostrophe would be this here. There should be no apostrophe in carrots, apples,
or peppers, and I'm going to teach you why. So the grocer's apostrophe is a spelling mistake
that is caused by placing an apostrophe before the s of a plural word. For example, we say one apple,
two apples. In English for most words, we add an S to make the word plural. Adding an apostrophe
S does not make a word plural. So two apples with an apostrophe s would be incorrect. We call it the
grocer's apostrophe because we see this mistake in many signs in grocery stores and supermarkets.
So do not add apostrophe s to the end of a noun to make it plural. We're going to look
at some more examples. This is an image from a really funny video online that I saw. It says,
"Our dog's climb trees. They are fine." This is incorrect. The person has put an apostrophe s
on this sign, but this is just a plural noun. What is correct is our dogs climb trees.
They are fine... with no apostrophe. So when do we use an apostrophe? Apostrophes have two main uses.
One: they show possession. Possession means when something belongs to someone or something. For
example, the dog's bone is white. This means that the bone belongs to the dog. And so this
is a possessive noun. We're talking about this object that belongs to the dog. So we can write
apostrophe s. The second use of an apostrophe is that it indicates letters have been removed
to form a contraction. For example, my dog's swimming in the pool. This is correct because the
apostrophe s is to form a contraction, which means my dog is swimming in the pool. If we say my dog's
swimming, dog's is short for dog is, so both in case one and in case two, it would be okay to add
apostrophe s. But in this example, it is not because we are talking about more than one dog,
and we just want to write dogs as a plural noun. Let's look at some more examples.
You can see this as a sign in a store. It says gifts for teachers. We have gift apostrophe s and
teacher apostrophe s. Again, this is incorrect. Correct would be "gifts for teachers" with no
apostrophe s. Again, apostrophes show possession or form a contraction. You can say the teacher's
gift was expensive. In this case, teacher's shows possession. The gift belongs to the teacher.
The teacher's coming to the classroom. In this case, teacher's is a contraction for the teacher
is coming to the classroom. So you could say apostrophe s for both of these examples.
So how do we form plurals? We have one teacher. They have three teachers.
With three teachers, we add an S to teacher to make a plural noun teachers. And you can see there
is no apostrophe s. Here's another example. Let's buy gifts for our teachers. Again, we do not add
apostrophe s. We are just talking about the plural noun, more than one gift, more than one teacher.
Now here are two examples where we would use apostrophe s. My teacher's desk is blue.
Here we are talking about one teacher, and about the desk that belongs to the teacher.
And in the second case, the blue desk is my teacher's. Here, we can have apostrophe s, because
this is also a possessive noun. The blue desk is my teacher's. The desk belongs to the teacher.
So this is a possessive noun, because we're talking about possession, who the desk belongs to.
Let's look at some more examples. Here's another sign: tea's, coffee's and snack's. Do you think
this is correct? No, it's not correct. What would be correct is teas, coffees, and snacks.
Again, we're not talking about possession. We're not talking about something that belongs to the
tea or belongs to the coffee or belongs to the snack. And this is not a contraction for tea is
or coffee is. So this should be three plural nouns. Another example. This is a comment a
few days ago from a wonderful subscriber of mine, but there's an error here. I love your video's.
We cannot say apostrophe s because this is just a plural. This is a very common error. I have seen
probably over 10 different comments from different subscribers with this same error. We say
I love your videos, because we're talking about the plural noun videos. We're not talking about
something that belongs to the video. And we're not making a contraction. If you said, "your video's
awesome". This would be correct, because video's could be a contraction for your video is awesome.
But in this case, we're not making a contraction. We're talking about multiple videos, not just
one video. I love your videos. So this is correct here. Okay, so now it's time for a quiz.
You have to tell me if these sentences are correct or incorrect. There are 10 questions. Some of them
are correct. Some are incorrect. In some cases, we use an apostrophe s for a contraction or for
possession. And some are just plural nouns and not possessive nouns. So I want you to think carefully
and at the end, we will correct them together. Number one. My sisters are funny and intelligent.
Number two. That is my dog's ball. Number three. Her videos are very educational.
Number four. I need to buy some bananas and apples. Number five. The boy's walking to school.
Number six. There are many kittens on the farm. Number seven. My boyfriend's at work right now.
Number eight. We need cucumbers and tomatoes for the salad.
Number nine. You can buy five oranges for $2.
And finally, number 10. My friend's apartment is beautiful.
Okay, so let's correct these together. Number one is correct. My sisters are funny and intelligent.
Sisters does not need an apostrophe s. We're talking about two or more sisters,
and they are funny and intelligent. We're not creating a possessive noun and we're
not creating a contraction. Number two is correct. That is my dog's ball. This is a
possessive noun. We're talking about a ball that belongs to the dog. So we can use apostrophe s.
Number three is incorrect. Her videos are very educational. Here we're talking about
multiple videos, and they are educational. We can't use an apostrophe because we're
making a plural noun. We're not talking about possession, and we're not making a contraction.
Number four is also incorrect. Bananas and apples should not have an apostrophe s.
I need to buy some bananas and apples. We need to create two plural nouns. And we don't
add apostrophe to create a plural noun. The boy's walking to school. This is correct.
In this case, the boy is walking. This is a contraction for the boy is
walking to school. You can say the boy is walking to school or the boy's walking to school.
The apostrophe replaces the i to make a short form for boy is. Number six is incorrect. There
are many kittens on the farm. Don't add an apostrophe. Again, we're making a plural noun.
There are many kittens. Number seven is correct. My boyfriend's at work right now. Boyfriend's is a
contraction for my boyfriend is at work right now. So this is correct. Number eight is correct. We
need cucumbers and tomatoes for the salad. Here we have a plural noun cucumbers and tomatoes.
Number nine is incorrect. You can buy five oranges for $2. Oranges. We do not
add an apostrophe. We're talking about multiple oranges. We're not creating a possessive noun.
And we're not creating a contraction. So we just add s to orange. And finally, number 10 is
correct. My friend's apartment is beautiful. We're talking about an apartment that belongs to the
friend, so we're creating a possessive noun. So we add apostrophe s to talk about the apartment that
belongs to the friend. Okay, so let me know in the comments section how many you got correct out of
10. If you had some difficulty with this quiz, I recommend you watch my other videos on apostrophe
usage. I have a video on apostrophe rules and another video on apostrophe s, and I will link you
to both of those videos in the description below. Make sure to subscribe to Sparkle English for more
videos like this one on how to improve your level of English, and I will see you in my next lesson.