Jennifer: Hello everyone and welcome to Sparkle English. If
you're here it's because you want to learn English or improve
your level of English, maybe for personal reasons, maybe for
professional reasons, and you want to improve your skills as a
writer or as a transcriptionist, for example. Today's lesson is
going to be all about apostrophe rules. This is the second video
in my English writing essentials. So let's get
started. First of all, we have the introduction to apostrophes.
Apostrophes have two main uses. One, they show possession. And
possession means when you own something or something belongs
to you. So, for example, if I have a dog, it's my dog, I
possess the dog. And the second use for apostrophes is they
indicate letters that have been removed to form a contraction.
Now a contraction is when we have two words, and we want to
make it shorter. So we push them together, and we add an
apostrophe. And so for example, don't. Don't, this is a
contraction, and it comes from do not. We'll explain more of
that later on. So number one, let's first talk about
apostrophes and possessive nouns, we use apostrophes to
indicate that something belongs to someone. A lot of people will
call this the possessive s with the apostrophe and an s. The
first rule is that for most singular nouns, we add
apostrophe plus s, like this. So for example, we have the boy's
bike, the dog's bone, Jack's car, Emily's baby. All of these
are singular noun because we're talking about one boy, we're
talking about one dog. And of course, Jack is one person and
Emily is one person. Now imagine that this boy is very lucky. And
he has two bikes, we would still say, the boy's bikes, we would
say,
Unknown: the boy's bikes,
Jennifer: nothing would change with this apostrophe S, okay,
because this, one boy owns both of these bikes, so we don't have
to change anything. Okay, now let's go to the second page. For
most plural nouns, we add only an apostrophe. So most plural
nouns will end in an S, because for example, if we have girl,
girl becomes... usually we have to just add an s to make most
nouns plural, girl, girls, home homes, for example. Okay, so for
most plural nouns, we only add an apostrophe, the boys' bikes,
this means there's multiple boys, maybe there's two, maybe
there's three boys, for example, the dogs' bones, there's
multiple dogs, maybe there's two, maybe there's three, his
parents' car, this would mean both mom and dad or that would
mean their car. So it would be the car that belongs to the
parents. Now, imagine this said, the boys' bike like this, this
would mean there was one bike and both boys share the bike,
maybe they're brothers, for example. Okay, so for plural
nouns, we add only an apostrophe at the end. So usually most
plural nouns and an S for plural nouns that do not end in s, we
have to add apostrophe plus S. So for example, the singular
form of children is child. A lot of people who are not native
English speaker say childs and that's incorrect. Child is one.
And then if there's more than one, two plus, we say, children,
so the children's teacher, the sheep's wool, the women's
university, okay, so because all of these plural nouns do not end
in s, this ends in a P, this ends in an N, and we can add the
normal apostrophe S. Okay, now this is where it gets a little
complicated. And this gets very difficult for even native
English speakers. I see people who make mistakes on this all
the time. Now singular nouns end an S can either end in an
apostrophe, or just S to show possession. Okay, so example
words, I have Thomas Lucas, Paris, Barbados, okay, so two
places and I have two names. You can say it is Thomas's birthday.
That's correct. Because this is a singular noun that ends in an
S. So you're allowed to put Thomas's like this. Or you can
also put it is Thomas' birthday. But usually when you'd say this,
you'd say Thomas birthday because you don't have the extra
s. But this means the same thing and this is also correct. The
most important thing to Remember, is to be consistent.
Now there are some people who will say, no, absolutely, you
cannot do the first one. That's not correct at all. But in
general, it's accepted to do either or. And as you can see
here, I'm going to erase this. Different style guides can have
different preferences, but both ways are technically correct. So
just be consistent. If you're going to do it one way, make
sure to do it, stick to it that whole way. Okay, now we're going
to do some practice. Where do you need to place apostrophes in
these sentences?
Unknown: So
Jennifer: if I were you, I'd pause the video and maybe just
take a few seconds to write down your answers or just to think
about them in your head before you continue. So we've got
Jack's bike is broken, the cat's toy is yellow, and there's one
cat for this second sentence, the cat's toys are yellow, there
are two cats. I'm going to my parents house tomorrow. Now here
we're going to imagine its parents, it's both sets of
parents, a mother and father. And then we have James his party
is tomorrow. So the first one we're going to do is jack spike
is broken, we're going to put the apostrophe between the K and
the S because jack, singular noun doesn't end in s. The cat's
toy is yellow. Now there's one cat, it's singular. So we're
gonna put the apostrophe between the T and the s. And the last
one, the cat's toys are yellow, we're gonna put the apostrophe
at the end. Because there's more than one cat. We can't, we
cannot say the cats. Then we have I'm going to my parents
house tomorrow. Now remember, there's two parents. And this
word ends in an S normally, so we're going to put the
apostrophe at the end. And then we have James's party is
tomorrow. Now because I don't I didn't add the other s here are
just going to put like this. James's party is tomorrow with
the apostrophe at the end. Now remember, because this is a
singular noun that ends in s. You can also write James's, I
know it looks a little strange, but both are technically
acceptable. The one you cannot not do is James because James is
not a name. So you can't do that at all. That's the one that you
can't do. Okay, let's go on to number two. Okay, now we have
apostrophes and possessive pronouns. So personal pronouns,
Unlike regular nouns do not use apostrophes to form possessives.
So here we have our personal pronouns, me, you, he, she, it,
we, they, and then we have our possessive pronouns, we've got
mine, mine, your yours, his, his, her, hers, it's, it's our
ours ours, their, theirs. Now notice with these. It's, there's
no apostrophe. And we don't use an apostrophe for any of these.
And this is something that a lot of people make mistakes with.
Let me give you some examples. We have the bike is Emily's.
That's correct. That's what we learned before this is a
singular noun and we have the possessive s, the bike is hers.
So here, the bike is hers, it belongs to her. But you cannot
say the bike is hers. Like this, you cannot do that. And you also
if you look down here, you cannot say she's bike is blue.
So you can say Emily's bike is blue. But you cannot replace
Emily's with she's It doesn't work like that, you would say
her bike is blue. Okay, so let's do a little bit show you a few
more examples here. So some more examples. We have the award is
yours. The car is his, the money is theirs. The dog's bone is
white, its bone is white. Now pay attention to this here. It's
bone is white, we cannot put it it Apostrophe S bone is white.
Because this it Apostrophe S is a contraction. And it can mean
it is or it has. And it is bone as white or it has bone as
white. That makes no sense. The it's means the same thing as the
dogs. Okay? So just keep that in mind. Okay, now another one is
the difference between who's or who's they both sound the exact
same, but they have very different meanings. We use whose
wh OS e when referring to possession or belonging just
like we've been talking about. But who's, who applies
Apostrophe S is a contraction for who is or who has. So if I'm
asking you a question, and I say, Whose car is that? It is
Jack's car.
Unknown: The who's
Jennifer: is asking who does something belong to? You might
wonder what the difference between who's and who is? Well,
who is asking about the person? So if I say, Who is that? Oh,
that is jack, this is asking about the person who is it? But
if I say, whose is that? This means that the next, what
follows? Who's? I'm asking? Who does that belong to? So if I
say, whose boyfriend is that? Oh, that's Jennifer's boyfriend.
Okay, who does that friend belong to? So Whose car is that?
It is Jack's car. If I say Whose car is that? This would mean who
his car is that and that makes no sense. So we can't do that.
And one more example for whose you can also use it in a
sentence like this. That's not a question. I know a man whose
daughter works for Jennifer Aniston. So that means the man's
daughter works for Jennifer Aniston. Because the daughter
belongs to the man. It's his daughter. Two more examples.
Who's going to the conference tomorrow? Who is going to the
conference tomorrow? And who is going to the conference
tomorrow? We can't say that. Because this it doesn't make
sense. We're trying to ask who is? Okay, let's do some
practice. So here we're going to correct these sentences. Whose
phone is this? That isn't my phone. I think it is hers.
Should we go to my office or yours? Okay, we're gonna correct
these. This is not correct. hos phone is this. Because we're
asking the phone belongs to what person that isn't my phone, I
think it is hers. This does not need possessive s. Because the
word is just like this, hers. Should we go to my office or
yours. Don't use this. Again, yours, it just ends with an S
with no apostrophe. Okay, number three apostrophes with certain
compound nouns. An example of a compound noun would be brother
in law, mother in law, if you don't know what that means, your
mother in law. So for example, if I get married to Brad Pitt,
his mom or his mother is my mother in law. And my brother in
law would be Brad Pitt's brother, if Brad Pitt has a
brother. Okay. So some compound nouns do not form their plurals
by adding s to the end. So example brother in law, his
singular brothers in law with the S at the end of brother that
is plural. So for example, my brother in law's new job has so
many benefits. This means there's one brother in law, and
we're talking about his new job. The second example is plural. My
brothers in law's wives don't get along very well. And this
would be talking about two or maybe three brothers in laws,
and we're talking about their wives. So they each have their
own wife, okay. It's not that often you'll encounter
situations like this. But that's just important to know, just in
case.
Can the next one we're going to do is apostrophes with joint
ownership and how do you use an apostrophe when you're talking
about things that belong to more than one person? So the rule is,
when one thing belongs to two or more people make only the final
name possessive. So let's do an example. Susan, and Dave's
wedding. This means that Susan and Dave are getting married,
and they're having a wedding together. There's just one
wedding for both Susan and Dave. It's their wedding, one wedding.
And the next one is the same. Karen and Judy's shop. So let's
say Karen and Judy are best friends and they have their own
shop. They own that shop together. Now, again, if we put
here, Karen and Judy's shops, maybe Karen, that would mean
Karen and Judy have two shops, and they own both of those shops
together. But when you're talking about separate things
that belong to different people, you have to make all the names
possessive. So for example, here we had Susan and Dave's wedding
at the top, but down here we've got Susan's and Dave's weddings.
So for example, Susan's and Dave's weddings were both on the
beach. That means that Susan had a wedding on the beach with
someone and Dave had a wedding on the beach with someone else.
There was two different weddings, one for Susan and one
for Dave. And if we have Carol And Judy's shops. That means
that Karen has a shop. And Judy has a shop, they each have a
shop. So let's do some practice for both lesson three and four.
Where should you place an apostrophe in these sentences?
My mother in law's cooking skills are incredible. My
sister's in laws cars are both black, jack and Dave's party was
so much fun. Karen's and Mary's kids are very well behaved. The
first one, you just have one mother in law. And also this is
singular here, mother. So we're gonna put mother in laws like
this, the apostrophe before the s. My sister's in laws, cars are
both black. Here, again, apostrophe before the s, because
we only have to make this plural here for talking about more than
one sister in law. Jackand Dave's party was so much fun.
We're gonna put an apostrophe before the s. That means that
Jack and Dave had one party, and they had the party together.
Last one, Karen's and Mary's kids are very well behaved.
Karen's and Mary's that means we're talking about Karen's kids
and Mary's kids, both of their kids, not the kids that they
have together. But Karen has her kids and Mary has her kids.
Okay, lesson five, apostrophes and contractions. Okay, so, a
contraction is a shortened form of a word or group of words that
omit omits or leaves out certain letters or sounds in a
contraction and apostrophe represents missing letters.
Examples, I'm, I am, he'll he will. She's she is where she has
don't do not, won't, will not. So here is a very long list of
all the different contractions you might run into. I'm going to
read them off really quickly for you. We've got aren't are not
can't, cannot. Couldn't, could not didn't, did not doesn't does
not don't do not, hadn't had not. Oh, it continues, I won't
read them all. Some of these can mean two things she can mean she
had or she would. She's can mean she is or she has that can mean
that is or that has weed can be we had we would there's there is
there has they'd they had they would. So just be careful with
some of these, even what's, what is what has. So some of these
have multiple meanings. And you'll know that by the context.
Now if you are watching this video because you are a
transcriptionist, then sometimes you they prefer you to not write
the contraction and they'll prefer you to write the full the
formal word but that just depends on the preference of the
company. Okay, let's do some practice. Where should you place
apostrophes in these sentences? I'm going to the store tomorrow
because I didn't go today. She won't come to the meeting
because she's ill today. who's bringing the beer? He wouldn't
act like that if you were nicer.
So let's start with the first one. I'm going to the store
tomorrow because I didn't go today. This is a contraction for
I am. Didn't for did not she won't come to the meeting
because she's ill today. Won't is a contraction for will not.
Now maybe that will confuse you because you say well, why isn't
it willand? Well, it's an irregular contraction, so it's
won't and she's ill today that's contraction for she is who's
bringing the beer who is bringing the beer. He wouldn't
act like that. If you were nicer. Wouldn't his four would
not. Okay, congratulations. You've just finished your second
lesson with vn sparkle English all on apostrophes. I hope that
you enjoyed that lesson it wasn't too difficult for you.
apostrophes is a little bit difficult at first, but the more
you practice the more you study and revise the better you'll get
at it. So thank you very much for watching this video and
please subscribe to my channel, like and share this video with
any of your friends who also want to learn English and I will
see you in my next video. Thanks for watching.